Celebrating Athanasius in Venice. Illuminated Manuscripts for the Nuns of Santa Croce alla Giudecca

A newly discovered two-volume breviary in the Library of the Correr Museum, Venice is shown to have been illuminated ca. 1485-1495 for the female Benedictine monastery of Santa Croce alla Giudecca. The breviary is an important addition to the corpus of Venetian painted manuscripts, but also is among very few surviving testimonies of the art and religious culture of Santa Croce before the church was completely rebuilt from 1508-1511. The breviary was painted initially by two artists, one named here as the Master of the Correr Santa Croce Breviary, and the other was the well-known and prolific Master of the Pico Pliny. A later hand, perhaps that of a nun, illuminated some of the initials. An inscription within the breviary definitively confirms that Santa Croce was associated with the reformed Congregation of Santa Giustina in Padua. The breviary features unique liturgy and imagery celebrating Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, a Greek Church Father whose presumed body was donated to the nuns in 1455. The miniatures also highlight the cult of treasured relics of the Holy Cross at Santa Croce.