You are in Introduction. Click here to skip the navigation.
British Library
Digital Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts
 Detail from the Roman de la Rose
About Simple search Manuscript search Advanced search  Virtual exhibitions Glossaries Contact us  Main
print Print this page
home Home
site search Search British Library website
back Back

search tips  Search tips
 
 

 

 
 

Detailed record for Royal 6 E IX

Author Convenevole da Prato
Title Address in verse to Robert of Anjou, King of Naples, from the town of Prato in Tuscany (the 'Regia Carmina')
Origin Italy, Central (Tuscany)
Date c. 1335-c. 1340
Language Latin
Script Gothic cursive
Artists Pacino di Buonaguida, an illuminator active Florence, c. 1300- c. 1350 (see Labriola 2004). For his corpus and bibliography see Ada Labriola, 'Pacindo di Buonaguida', in Dizionario Biografico dei Miniatori Italiani: Secoli IX-XVI, ed. by Milvia Bollati (Milano: Bonnard, 2004), pp. 841-43 (p. 841).
Decoration 47 miniatures in colours and gold with verses incorporated in them (ff. 1v, 2v, 4v-5, 6-9, 10v-13, 15, 19v-25, 27, 28v-30v). Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing or in red with purple or blue pen-flourishing.
Dimensions in mm 490 x 350 (355 x 240), in two columns
Official foliation ff. i + 30 (+ 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end; f. i is a medieval parchment flyleaf)
Form Parchment codex
Binding Post-1600. Royal Library binding.
Provenance Robert of Anjou, king of Naples (b. 1277, d. 1343): probably the original copy presented to him by citizens of Prato, Tuscany, when the city placed itself under his protection (c. 1335-40); his arms (f. 2v), and portrait (f. 10).
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
Notes Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
There are only two other known manuscripts containing the same text: Viennna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Samlung der kunstindustriellen Gegenstände, no. 10 and Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Magliabecchiana ci vii cod. 17.
Catchwords.
Select bibliography W. R. Tymms and M. D. Wyatt, The Art of Illuminating as Practised in Europe from the Earliest Times (London: Day and Sons, 1860; repr. Studio Editions, 1987), pl. XV.13.

[George Warner], Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1907-08), II, pls 39, 40.

J. A. Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Methuen, 1911), p. 256.

George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), I, pp. 159-60.

[J. A. Herbert], British Museum: Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 2, 3rd edn (London: British Museum, 1923), pls 39-40.

[J. A. Herbert], Illuminated Manuscripts and Bindings of Manuscripts Exhibited in The Grenville Library, Guide to the Exhibited Manuscripts, 3 (Oxford: British Museum, 1923), no. 124.

P. D'Ancona, La miniature italienne du Xe au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1925), p. 45.

Fritz Saxl and Hans Meier, Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages, 4 vols, III: Manuscripts in English Libraries (London: The Warburg Institute, 1953), p. 195.

Rosy Schilling, 'Ein Gebetbuch des Michelino da Besozzo', Munchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 3 (1957) 65-80 (p. 79, n. 24).

Bernhard Degenhart and Annegrit Schmitt, 'Marino Sanudo und Paolino Veneto: Zwei Literaten des 14. Jahrhunderts in ihrer Wirkung auf Buchillustrierung und Kartographie in Venedig, Avignon und neapel', Römisches Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, 14 (1973), 1-137 (pp. 98, 100, il. 95).

Bernhard Degenhart and Annegrit Schmitt, 'Frühe angiovinische Buchkunst in Neapel', in Festschrift Wolfgang Braunfels, ed. by Friedrich Piel and Jörg Träger (Tübingen: Wasmuth, 1977), pp. 71-92 (pp. 71, 88, n. 1).

Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Manuscript (Oxford: Phaidon, 1979), pl. 42.

A. G. Watson Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c.700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts, The British Library (London, 1979), I, no. 876.

Bernhard Degenhart and Annegrit Schmitt, Corpus der Italienischen Zeichnungen 1300-1450, part 2 in two volumes (Berlin: Gerb. Mann, 1980), II, p. 265, pl. 440, 569.

Convenevole da Prato, Regia carmina: dedicati a Roberto d’Angio`, re di Sicilia e di Gerusalemme, introduction and translation by Cesare Grassi, notes by Marco Ciatti and Aldo Petri, 2 vols (Prato: Gruppo Bibliofili Pratesa, 1982) [facsimile edition with commentary, in reduced dimensions].

Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 96.

Nicolas Bell, Music in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2001), pp. 8-11.

Dizionario biografico dei miniatori italiani: Secoli IX-XVI , ed. by Milvia Bollati (Milan: Sylvestre Bonnard, 2004), p. 841.

Adal Labriola, 'L'ereditá di Giotto nella miniatura fiorentina' in L'ereditá di Giotto. Arte a Firenze 1340-1375, (Firenze: Giunti, 2008) pp.67-75 (p. 68) [exhibition catalogue].

Scot McKendrick, John Lowden, and Kathleen Doyle Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 134 [exhibition catalogue].
Last revised: Thursday, June 2, 2011


Images
* * *
 
Front cover and spine

binding
Front cover and spine
Puzzle initials

f. 1
Puzzle initials
Sedes Dei

f. 1v
Sedes Dei
 
Puzzle initial

f. 2
Puzzle initial
Enoch and Elias

f. 2v
Enoch and Elias
Puzzle initials

f. 3
Puzzle initials
 
Puzzle initials

f. 3v
Puzzle initials
Puzzle initials

f. 4
Puzzle initials
Christ

f. 4v
Christ
 
Christ and the Virgin

ff. 4v-5
Christ and the Virgin
Virgin Mary

f. 5
Virgin Mary
Puzzle initials

f. 5v
Puzzle initials
 
Angels

f. 6
Angels
Seraphs

f. 6
Seraphs
Cherubs

f. 6
Cherubs
 
Thrones

f. 6
Thrones
Angels

f. 6v
Angels
Dominations

f. 6v
Dominations
 
Princes

f. 6v
Princes
Powers

f. 6v
Powers
Angels

f. 7
Angels
 
Virtues

f. 7
Virtues
Archangels

f. 7
Archangels
Angels

f. 7
Angels
 
Patriarchs, Prophets and Apostles

f. 7v
Patriarchs, Prophets and Apostles
Patriarchs.

f. 7v
Patriarchs.
Prophets

f. 7v
Prophets
 
Apostles

f. 7v
Apostles
The Blessed

f. 8
The Blessed
Martyrs

f. 8
Martyrs
 
Confessors

f. 8
Confessors
Virgins, Widows, and the Just

f. 8
Virgins, Widows, and the Just
Cross

f. 8v
Cross
 
Christ

f. 9
Christ
Puzzle initial

f. 9v
Puzzle initial
Puzzle initial

f. 10
Puzzle initial
 
King Robert of Anjou

f. 10v
King Robert of Anjou
Robert of Anjou; personification of Italy

ff. 10v-11
Robert of Anjou; personification of Italy
Italy

f. 11
Italy
 
Rome and Hercules

ff. 11v-12
Rome and Hercules
Rome

f. 11v
Rome
Hercules

f. 12
Hercules
 
Fleur-de-lys and Florence

ff. 12v-13
Fleur-de-lys and Florence
Fleur-de-lys

f. 12v
Fleur-de-lys
Florence

f. 13
Florence
 
Florence

f. 13
Florence
Puzzle initials

f. 13v
Puzzle initials
Puzzle initial

f. 14
Puzzle initial
 
Puzzle initials

f. 14v
Puzzle initials
Puzzle initials

f. 15
Puzzle initials
Gardens

f. 15v
Gardens
 
Garden

f. 15v
Garden
Garden

f. 15v
Garden
Puzzle initial

f. 16
Puzzle initial
 
Text page

f. 16v
Text page
Puzzle initial

f. 17
Puzzle initial
Puzzle initial

f. 17v
Puzzle initial
 
Text page

f. 18
Text page
Text page

f. 18v
Text page
Text page

f. 19
Text page
 
Faith

f. 19v
Faith
Hope and Christ

f. 20
Hope and Christ
Charity

f. 20v
Charity
 
Prudence and Justice

f. 21
Prudence and Justice
Fortitude and Temperance

f. 21v
Fortitude and Temperance
Judgement of Paris

f. 22
Judgement of Paris
 
Cassandra

f. 22v
Cassandra
Peacock

f. 23
Peacock
Two banners

f. 23v
Two banners
 
Armed knight

f. 24
Armed knight
The Three Graces

f. 24v
The Three Graces
The Three Graces

f. 24v
The Three Graces
 
Royal House of France

f. 25
Royal House of France
Puzzle initial

f. 25v
Puzzle initial
Puzzle initial

f. 26
Puzzle initial
 
Text page

f. 26v
Text page
Philosophy

f. 27
Philosophy
Philosophy

f. 27
Philosophy
 
Puzzle initial

f. 27v
Puzzle initial
Blank folio

f. 28
Blank folio
Pegasus

f. 28v
Pegasus
 
Seven Liberal Arts

f. 29
Seven Liberal Arts
Four Muses

f. 29v
Four Muses
Four Muses

f. 30
Four Muses
 
Calliope

f. 30v
Calliope

print Print this page
home Home
site search Search British Library website
back Back
top Back

About Simple search Manuscript search Advanced search
Virtual exhibitions Glossaries Accessibility Contact us Main

All text is © British Library Board and is available under a CC-BY Licence except where otherwise stated