Cicero at the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid: An Illuminated Manuscript from the Visconti's Court Still to Be Studied

Massimo Medica
This essay focuses on a Cicero codex, now at the National Library in Madrid. It appears to have been realized, as confirmed by the presence of the radiant sun, for a patron close to Gian Galeazzo Visconti, probably his eldest son Giovanni Maria, assigned to succeed his father, according to what was established by imperial diploma of October 13, 1396. This date might be probably taken also as reference for the execution of the manuscript, which opens with a political-philosophical work such as De officiis, dedicated, as known, by Cicero to his son Marco. The chronology, that is also confirmed by the stylistic analysis of the whole ornamental apparatus, presents punctual analogies with the Viscontean codices produced in Pavia in the last decade of the fourteenth century. The result is a book of great preciousness and refinement entrusted to a few illuminators of undoubted fame, connected by a sensitivity and taste capable of combining some of the most ancient styles with the most modern outcomes represented by the activity of Michelino da Besozzo, who cannot be excluded to have personally realized some of the miniatures. The main role, however, was claimed by another illuminator known as the Master of the De natura deorum, whose personality is still elusive today despite his role in the court must have been of the first order as the Cicero codex of Madrid attests.

Index

Lucinia Speciale The Christian Muse. Mark's Portrait in the Rossano Gospels
vai all'articolo » pag. 17-21
Teresa D’Urso Cava and the Mediterranean. Some Manuscripts from the Norman-Swabian Period
vai all'articolo » pag. 22-28
Fabrizio Crivello A Glossed Psalter in Late Geometrical Style in Mainz
vai all'articolo » pag. 29-32
Silvia Maddalo Histories on the Margins. Notes on the Manfred Bible in Turin
vai all'articolo » pag. 33-37
Federica Volpera Schlatt, Eisenbibliothek, MS 20: A New Acquisition to Late Thirteenth-Century Genoese Manuscript Production
vai all'articolo » pag. 38-52
Laura Pasquini Henry VII and the Figurative Representation of Royalty: The Manuscript Sources
vai all'articolo » pag. 53-67
Giordana Mariani Canova Ildebrandino Conti's Missal and Its Illuminators: The Maestro Avignonese and the Maestro del Codice di san Giorgio
vai all'articolo » pag. 68-73
Marco Rossi A Figurative Addition to Giovanni Visconti's Milan: The Chronica urbis lat. 4946
vai all'articolo » pag. 74-77
Antonella Cattaneo The Illustrative Apparatus of Huon d'Auvergne in Berlin
vai all'articolo » pag. 78-88
Massimo Medica Cicero at the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid: An Illuminated Manuscript from the Visconti's Court Still to Be Studied
vai all'articolo » pag. 89-96
Giuliana Algeri Remarks on the “Bodmer Prayer Book” by Michelino da Besozzo
vai all'articolo » pag. 97-105
Gennaro Toscano A Book of Hours Illuminated by Leonardo da Besozzo for Alfonso the Magnanimous (Vienna, O¨sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 1886)
vai all'articolo » pag. 106-113
Giovanna Saroni Unpublished Fragments of a Savoyard Book of Hours
vai all'articolo » pag. 114-122
Federica Toniolo Illuminated Incunabula by the Urbinate and Ferrarese Workshop of Federico da Montefeltro
vai all'articolo » pag. 123-131
Lilian Armstrong Roberto Valturio, De re militari, 1472. A Note on the Hand-illuminated Copy in Houghton Library of Harvard University
vai all'articolo » pag. 132-135
Anca Delia Moldovan Astrology and Agriculture in the Calendar of the Offiziolo of Charles VIII (Fondazione Giorgio Cini, inv. 2502/4)
vai all'articolo » pag. 136-148
Giuseppa Z. Zanichelli The Master of the Breviary of San Giovanni Evangelista
vai all'articolo » pag. 149-152
Elena De Laurentiis The Choir Books in the Centro Studi Francescani per la Liguria. Some New Illuminations by Michele da Genova
vai all'articolo » pag. 153-163
Elli Doulkaridou Ramantani Two Illuminated Statuti from the Archive of San Giovanni Decollato in Rome
vai all'articolo » pag. 164-172
Antonio Iacobini, Giulia Orofino, Xavier Barral i Altet Opus Romanum. Un nuovo libro sulla miniatura a Roma nel Duecento
vai all'articolo » pag. 173-186