An Aldine Volume of Petrarch Illuminated for a Prestigious Patron

• Autores: Simona Cohen
• Localización: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, ISSN 0044-2992, Vol. 73, Nº. 2, 2010, págs. 187-210
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • A study of a rare edition of an Aldine volume of Petrarch's Le cose volgari in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth, England. This unique volume was printed on vellum by Aldus Manutius in Venice, Italy, in 1514. It is richly illuminated with full-page illustrations of the six Trionfi and contains two emblematic title pages, but it has no heraldic arms or indications of arms having been erased. The only clue to its possible origin is a late 18th-century note inserted at the end, which states that it was in the Medici library and was decorated for a young Medici princess. This study explores several options in an effort to date the illuminations that were added to the book at different times for different patrons, and it tentatively identifies Eleonora da Toledo—the daughter of the Spanish viceroy of Naples, who married Cosimo de' Medici in 1539—as the recipient of the book on the basis of stylistic, iconographic, and historical evidence.