An illustration in one of the anthem books

In the Monastery of St. John the Evangelist there's a splendid series of illuminated anthem books. Their origin and the period of execution are clarified by a writing, which is repeated in an almost identical form in three of them. It certifies their origin from the monastery of St. Giustina in Padua, to whose observance the convent of Parma had been subjected with a brief of Sixtus IV of July 17, 1477. The authors of the figurative ornamentation were certainly different, clearly distinct in the style. The payments on the year 1481 are credited to Francino da Moile, on the date of June 3, 1488 Damiano da Moile is mentioned, and from 1492 onwards the miniatures are paid to Michele from Genoa. However, other artists, however, carried out these ornaments, which were often excecuted by different hands at the same time.