PETRARCA: TRIONFI

MS 2105
MS Short Title PETRARCA: TRIONFI
Text FRANCESCO PETRARCA: TRIONFI
Description MS in Italian on vellum, Firenze, Italy, ca. 1450, 53 ff. (complete), 20x13 cm, single column, (14x8 cm), 21 lines in a cursive humanistic book script by the scribe of "the remarkable Venice Silius", Marc. Lat.XII.68 (possibly Mariotto Nori), headings in red, 13 3-line illuminated initials in burnished gold on pink or blue and green ground with delicate tracery in yellow and white, a very large, 6-line historiated initial enclosing a standing figure of Cupid, surrounded by white-vine decorations infilled in blue, pink and green extending around the whole page, including a butterfly and 4 birds, vignettes of a running white hound, two faces of cherubs, a running hare, a girl (presumably Laura), 3 putti supporting a coat-of-arms in a gold cartouche, by Ser Ricciardo di Nanni.
Binding Firenze, Italy, ca. 1450, panelled, blind-tooled dark goatskin over wooden boards, sewn on 3 bands, 2 brass catches.
Context The same scribe is responsible for at least 4 other Florentine MSS, including a Vergil produced for William Gray by Vespasiano (Oxford Balliol 140), another Vergil with a famous miniature by Gugllielmo Giraldi (Vat.Urb.lat.350), and possibly a fifth MS, Boccaccio La Fiammetta for the Marquis of Santillana (Madrid B.N.Res.53). Prof. A. de la Mare is tempted to identify the scribe as the Florentine Mariotto Nori.
Provenance 1. Florentine count (ca. 1450); 2. Kenneth Knight (-1982); 3. Christie's 8.12.1982:133; 4. H. Schiller, Paris (-1991); 5. Sotheby's 18.6.1991:86; 6. Fabio del Core and his descendants, Lugano (1991-1996) 7. Christie's 3.4.1996:5. De-accessioned 2010 to Jörn Günther
Commentary The artist Ser Ricciardo di Nanni worked for the Medici from 1456 to 1459.
Place of origin Italy
Dates ca 1450 AD