The Biblioteca comunale degli Intronati for The James Madison Council

Transcription

1 The Biblioteca comunale degli Intronati for The James Madison Council Manuscripts, incunables, drawings and prints Biblioteca comunale degli Intronati Siena

2 The Biblioteca comunale degli Intronati for The James Madison Council Manuscripts, incunables, drawings and prints Siena, Biblioteca comunale degli Intronati 21 June 2011 Volume published on the occasion of the visit of The Madison Council from The Library of Congress, Washington Project management Luciano Borghi Curated by Annalisa Pezzo Selection of the works Rosanna De Benedictis Texts Sara Centi Rossella De Pierro Annalisa Pezzo Chiara Razzolini Bibliography Mirko Francioni Annalisa Pezzo Translations Laura Bailhache Fabiana Bassani Veronica Santini Elisabeth Watts Piccia Neri Translations Editor Piccia Neri Photography Marco Bruttini Marco Muzzi Graphic Design Number Six, The Village Produced by Vanzi S.r.l. Industria grafica, Colle di Val d Elsa (Si) Acknowledgments Lorenzo Catacchini, Alessio Duranti, Roberta Ferri, Pietro Indelicato, Stefania Jahier, Marco Marcellini, Roberta Mari, Isabella Neri, Marco Pierini The technical descriptions at the beginning of nos. 1-12, 16, 21, 25 are by Rossella De Pierro Abbreviations BMC - Catalogue of Books IGI - Indice generale degli incunaboli ISTC - The Illustrated Incunabula Biblioteca comunale degli Intronati Istituzione del Comune di Siena Chairman of the Board Bernardina Sani Administrative Board Giovanbattista Alfano Carlo Ciatti Gianna De Santi Luigi Maria Di Corato Anna Gambelli Massimo Tedeschi Barbara Valeriani Chief Librarian Luciano Borghi

3 The works described in the present catalogue were selected and displayed on the occasion of the visit of The James Madison Council delegation from The Library of Congress, led by the Librarian in Chief, Dr. James H. Billington, on 21 June The exhibition and the booklet represent a small tribute and our way of expressing our gratitude for inviting the Biblioteca comunale degli Intronati di Siena to be part of the World Digital Library network, under the patronage of the Library of Congress and Unesco. We are honoured to be among those historical Italian libraries that are worthy of your visit, and grateful that our rich heritage can be put to its best use and bring a significant testimony to the history, culture and art of Europe in your global project. The works in this selection, out of the very masterpieces in our collection, were chosen for their rarity and the exceptional artistic value of the illustrative programmes accompanying the texts, be they historical, liturgical, juridical or literary. In a few cases the pieces are not part of a book but separate works of art, such as drawings and engravings. The twenty-five selected works mainly by painters, engravers, architects, engineers from Siena, or active in the area can be regarded as outstanding records of the city s artistic and cultural heritage and its popularity; they also often reflect the events in the collectors market and bear trace of the rich and vibrant network of intellectual connections that finally led them to the Library. The documents described in the booklet and on display on this occasion represent an extremely valuable, but very small, section of an extraordinarily large cultural legacy in constant need of protection, preservation and restoration within a wider context of research, appreciation and fruition. My most sincere thanks go to those who devote their working lives to the achievement of these goals and, of course, to all those who contributed to the organisation of this event. Moreover, on behalf of all the staff of Biblioteca comunale degli Intronati di Siena, of the Board of the Library, of Sien a City Council, I wish to express again and with great satisfaction our heartfelt gratitude to the Library of Congress and to the James Madison Council. Luciano Borghi The Chief Librarian

4 Giovanni Bruni, Portrait of Giuseppe Ciaccheri, 1823, oil on canvas. Siena, Biblioteca comunale degli Intronati

5 A brief history of the Biblioteca comunale degli Intronati The origins of the library date back to 1758, when the archdeacon Sallustio Bandini donated his books (2886 volumes at the time) to the University, in order to provide it with an adequate book collection. Bandini set as conditions for the bequest that the library should be accessible to the public and under the management of the abbot Giuseppe Ciaccheri. The donation provided the starting point for a very important pole of cultural attraction in the building previously occupied by the Sapienza (a part of the University of Siena) and still occupied by the library to this day. The starting collection was remarkable, and kept being enlarged thanks to donations and funding from the government of the Grand Dukes: however, even more important was the fact that librarian Ciaccheri s long-standing passion for local art and painting channelled various types of art collections into the library. Amongst the first book donations from private citizens, the one from Giovanni Sansedoni (1760) is worth mentioning, as well as the one from Adelagia Benvoglienti (1769), the daughter of the Sienese scholar Uberto, who bequeathed her father s manuscripts and letters. In 1783 the library shelves welcomed a significant series of manuscripts coming from the dissolution of convents and secular companies ordered by the Gran Duke Pietro Leopoldo. The earthquake that shattered the city of Siena in 1798 brought serious damage to the Library building, forcing a closure of the venue, which only partially re-opened in The library was closed again five years later, in 1808, following the decision by the French occupiers, within a general restructuring of the educational institutions in Tuscany, to discontinue the activity of the University of Siena and as a consequence of its library. There was an informal re-opening in 1810, under the direction of the Franciscan monk

6 Luigi De Angelis. The French government decree that allowed its re-opening joined the library of the Sapienza with that of the convent of Sant Agostino, placing the new institution under the jurisdiction of the Civic Community of Siena. Officially, the opening ceremony of the new civic library only took place in Mostly, the new librarian De Angelis concentrated his efforts on making an inventory of the existing book assets and acquiring new assets from the convents of the Sienese territory after their dissolution. Under De Angelis direction the library confirmed and expanded its secondary function as a museum, for the substantial series of conspicuous examples of Sienese art that the Franciscan managed to obtain for the building of La Sapienza. These works would later provide the first nucleus for the future Istituto di Belle Arti and for the Pinacoteca Nazionale. De Angelis died in During the period immediately before the unification of Italy, under the management of the librarian Francesco Chigi, the library suffered progressive and constant cuts to its funding. Between 1844 and 1848 the seven volumes of the important Indice per materie della Biblioteca comunale di Siena were published, edited by Lorenzo Ilari and listing both manuscripts and printed materials in the library. In the years following the unification (1861) the library remained the recipient of book donations, integrated in 1866 by the substantial estates coming from another dissolution of convents, this time by order of the Italian national government. Twenty years later, in 1886, a considerable bequest came from the Sienese librarian and publisher Giuseppe Porri, comprising manuscripts, printed books, collections of engravings and drawings as well as large collections of autographs of celebrated personalities, coins, medallions and seals now moved to the Museo civico in piazza del Campo. The library s current name was given to the institution by the podestà of Siena Fabio Bargagli Petrucci in 1932, in memory of the old literary academy of the Intronati that had had its headquarters in the Sapienza building from 1722 to Bargagli Petrucci, under whose government the building underwent a number of renovations, also donated to the library a substantial collection of advertising posters in In 1959 the City Council and the Province of Siena created a Consortium for the management of the Library. Since 1996 the library is an institution pertaining to the City Council (Comune di Siena) with the active participation of the provincial government. The Biblioteca comunale degli Intronati is also currently leading an urban library network and a network of libraries over 6

7 the territory of the province, comprising over forty libraries. Since the mid- 1990s a complex architectural renovation of the spaces of the old Sapienza has started, thanks to which the library has been allocated the spaces previously occupied by the Archaeological museum and the Istituto d arte. The new section for trade papers, magazines and newspapers was opened in 1999, in 2001 the reading room for manuscripts and ancient books, and in 2006 a new open-shelved public library as well as a Children s library opened in Vicolo della Sapienza. In the meantime, a rational reorganisation of the book deposits has been carried out. Finally, 2011 saw the opening of the exhibition room for drawings and engravings. The assets as a whole comprise today over documents. 7

8 1. Decretum Gratiani cum Glossa ordinaria Iohannis Teutonici et Bartholomaei Brixiensis (end of the XII century-beginning of the XIII century), ms. G.V.23 Parchment; ff. III, 497 (494), III ; modern foliation (XIX century) repeating no. 481 and skipping two smaller leaves inserted after ff. 315 e 410; mm Historiated initials at the beginning of the Causae and the Distinctiones, decorated initials, flourish initials, simple initials, rubricated. Restoration parchment binding The manuscript comes from the convent of S. Bernardino all Osservanza, as confirmed by the bookplate and by Luigi De Angelis s note recording its arrival in the library in 1811 (f. 2r). It contains the Decretum Gratiani, an essential collection of sources of canonical law edited by the jurist monk Gratianus in the first half of the XII century. In addition, the manuscript also contains the Glossa Ordinaria and some texts by Giovanni d Andrea, doctor decretorum of the Studio bolognese in the first decades of the XIV century (in the margins to ff. 457v-461r, that is to say the Declaratio Arboris Consanguinitatis, the Declaratio Arboris Affinitatis and the Summa de sponsalibus et matrimonio). The execution of the Decretum Gratiani can be placed around the end of the XII century in the region of northern France. Lavishly illustrated, the miniatures have been attributed to four different artists, probably from the same workshop, operating between Paris and Sens, and can be dated to the last quarter of the XII century ( ). The Glossa, also the work of several artists operating north of the Alps, can be dated to the middle of the following century, while the script of the works by Giovanni d Andrea is by an Italian hand and later still (middle of the XIV century). Bibliography Ilari , II, 1845, p. 200; Kuttner 1937, p. 111; Mostra di manoscritti , pp ; Rabotti 1959, pp ; Kuttner 1963, p. 535; Liotta 1964, pp. 29, 30; Melnikas 1975, passim; Mecacci 1996, pp ; E. Mecacci, G. Vailati Schoenburg-Waldenburg, in Lo Studio e i testi , p. 39 n. 1; Vailati Schoenburg-Waldenburg 1996, pp , 94, n. 1; L Engle, Gibbs 2001, p. 114; Murano 2005, p Annalisa Pezzo 8

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10 2. Miscellanea (end of the XIII century-ante 1521), ms. H.VI.31 Composite. ff. IV, 168 (2-169), III ; mm 135/207 89/147. Recent leather binding on boards with tooling on the boards The codex, a composite volume, gathers together five manuscripts of different age and provenance also dissimilar in layout, graphic style and format. It contains: I. Dante Alighieri, Rime (end of the XV century) Parchment; ff. I, 46 (48), I ; recent foliation in pencil including the flyleaves, accompanied by old pagination (1-91); mm Gilded initial on blue background with decoration in the margin, initials highlighted in red or blue, rubricated The small codex, dating back to the late XV century, in Renaissance script, contains several rhymes by Dante. On the front cover is a XV century note, now almost totally faded: Di Cosimo de Medici e degli Amici (Belonging to Cosimo de Medici and His Friends). Bibliography Ilari , I, 1844, p. 188; Iacometti 1921, pp ; De Robertis 1966, pp n II. Orationes et epistulae (second half of the XV century) Parchment; ff. 32 (49-80); recent foliation in pencil accompanied by modern one, erroneous; mm At f. 49r gilded initial with white vine-stem with a frieze on the lower margin including the coat of arms of the Tegliacci family, gilded initials with white vine-stem on blue background with friezes on the margin ending in gold buttons (ff. 58v, 67r, 71v, 74r, 75v), rubricated The manuscript, dating back to the late XV century, used to belong to the Sienese Alessandro Tegliacci, as stated in a note written on the initial page by an unknown later owner: Dedit mihi Alex(ande)r Tegliaccius die(?) 8 decembris 1581 atque sua humanitate donavit (Alessandro Tegliacci kindly gave this to me as a gift on 8 December 1581) (f. 49r). The decoration on the same leaf bears the coat of arms of the Tegliacci family. Alessandro is perhaps to be identified with the scholar called by Cosimo II to be professor of Humanities of the Studio (the University) of Siena in The manuscript comprises a 10

11 collection of prayers and Latin epistles by several Renaissance humanists: the Oratio ad pontificem Nicolaum V by Giannozzo Manetti (ff. 49r-58r), other orationes to the same recipient by Poggio Bracciolini (ff. 58v-66v) and by Francesco Micheli del Padovano (ff. 66v-71v), the Oratiuncula ad Martinum V by Leonardo Bruni, the Florentinorum epistula ad imperatorem Federicum III and the Florentinorum epistula ad Concilium Basiliense (ff. 74r-79v). Bibliography IIlari , I, 1844, pp , 111; VI, 1847, p. 487; Iacometti 1921, pp ; Kristeller 1967, II, p. 154; Hankins 1997, n III. Tractatus de creatione mundi (end of the XIII century) Parchment; ff. 48 (81-130); recent foliation in pencil; mm Watercolour drawings (ff. 81r, 82r, 83r, 84r, 85r, 86r, 87v, 89r, 90v, 92r, 93v, 94v, 95v, 96r, 97r, 98r, 99r); decorated initials, flourish initials; initials with red highlights or with yellow watercolour, rubricated The codex, which contains a Tractatus de creatione mundi from the Book of Genesis, followed by a narration of the Passion of Jesus Christ (ff. 99r-128v), is one of the most significant examples of late XIII century Sienese illumination. The pictures, partly watercolour drawings partly proper illuminations, were made by an extremely refined Sienese artist, heavily influenced by Transalpine miniaturists and active from around 1290 through the following decade. The illustrations, sketched by a fast, concise hand, stand out for their strikingly smooth style, unusual in the Sienese production of the time, a quality matched by the spontaneity of the narration and an uncommonly flowing hand. The landscape details make remarkable use of spatial illusionism, a sign of the author s awareness of Duccio s innovations. For the series illustrating episodes from the Creation and the progenitors life, Luciano Bellosi suggested an identification of the anonymous miniaturist with Guido di Graziano, the author of the 1280 Biccherna tablet (Siena, Archivio di Stato, n. 7). Bellosi also traces back to Guido a considerable group of works, among which the dossal of St Peter (Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale), stylistically very consistent with the illustrations of this codex. Ada Labriola, on the other hand, envisions a later training of our artist within Guido s workshop, on the basis of his more modern narrative style, clearly aware of Cimabue s and Duccio s innovations. Labriola also recognises the hand of this miniaturist (known as the Master of the Tractatus de creatione mundi) as being different from the very similar one of the author of a Crucifixion with Virgin and St John and 11

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13 of an illuminated initial (ff. 99r-v) decorating the Passio Iesu Christi composita ex quattuor evangelistis (Maestro of the Duecento of the Dominican Legendary). Bibliography Ilari , V, 1846, p. 28; Iacometti 1921, pp ; Degenhart, Schmitt 1968, I/I, pp ; Conti 1979, p. 27 n. 54; Ciardi Dupré Dal Poggetto 1981, p. 65; G. Chelazzi Dini, in Il gotico a Siena , n. 22; Bellosi 1985, p. 40 n. 6; Bellosi 1991, pp ; La miniatura senese , pp. 26, 35, 37, 40, 41, 44, 63, 64, 267, 272; F. Mori, in Duccio , pp n. 16. IV. Gabriel Volaterranus, Carmen de profectione Magorum (post 1460) Parchment; ff. 13 ( ); recent foliation in pencil accompanied by a modern foliation, erroneous; mm Gilded white vine-stem initial with lapis frieze in the inside and lower margin, comprising the Piccolomini del Testa coat of arms, rubricated This XV century manuscript, in Renaissance script, contains a poetical composition (De profectione Magorum adorare Christum et de innocentibus interfectis ab Herode) by a Gabriel Volaterranus. The author of the poem is in all likelihood identifiable with Gabriello Zacchi da Volterra, the archpriest of the cathedral, who came from an a culturally refined background and died at thirty-three in 1467 (Anton Filippo Giachi, Saggio di ricerche sopra lo stato antico e moderno di Volterra..., in Firenze 1786, nella stamperia di Pietro Allegrini alla Croce Rossa, p. 155). The work is dedicated by the author to Tommaso del Testa Piccolomini, Pius II s secret assistant (f. 132r), to whom the pope had granted the privilege of kinship to the Piccolomini family. In 1460 Tommaso was also awarded the title of imperial counselor by Federico III, with the honour of adding the imperial eagle to his coat of arms; subsequently he was made the bishop of Sovana first and Pienza later (Isidoro Ugurgieri Azzolini, Le Pompe sanesi, I-II, in Pistoia, nella stamperia di Pier Antonio Fortunati, 1649, I, p. 205; Girolamo Gigli, Diario sanese..., I part, second edition, Tip. dell ancora, Siena 1854, p. 526). The presence of the imperial eagle in Testa Piccolomini s coat of arms within the decoration of the codex (f. 132r) suggests the year 1460 as a plausible post quem for the dating of the manuscript. José Ruysschaert attributed the illuminated decoration, with its white vine-stem motifs, to Gioacchino de Gigantibus, active in the 1460s within Pius II s cultural circle. Bibliography Iacometti 1921, pp ; Kristeller 1967, II, p. 154; Ruysschaert 1968, p

14 V. Lucianus Samosatensis, Dialogi deorum, translation by Livio Guidolotto with the title Deorum dialogi decem ( ) Parchment; ff. II, 24 ( ); recent foliation in pencil including I-II, white; mm Illuminated page framed by a frieze bearing pope Leo X s emblem (f. 151r), historiated gilded initial with flowery frieze in the inside margin (f. 146r), gilded initials with phytomorphic decoration and a small frieze at ff. 151r, 153v, 155v, 158r, 159v, 161v, 163v, 165r, 167v, 168v, rubricated The manuscript contains ten of Lucianus dialogues in Livio Guidolotto s (or Guidalotto, or Guidalotti) Latin version. Livio, a Classics scholar from Urbino, was Leo X Medici s apostolic assistant, and he dedicates his translation to the pope himself in an introductory epistle of 1518 ( Romae, Idibus maii MDXVIII ; f. 150v). This year is the terminus post quem for the work, to be placed no later than 1521, the year the pope died. Giovanni de Medici s emblem, with the beam accompanied by the letter N and the motto Suave as it stood even before he became pope Leo X, is inserted in the decoration within the codex. The Medici coat of arms is also present, crowned by the papal insignia and the symbol of the Medici, a diamond ring with a white, a green and a red feather and the motto Semper. The same emblems have been found in a group of codices in the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence which were probably commissioned by Leo X (see Angela Dillon Bussi, La biblioteca medicea laurenziana negli ultimi anni del Quattrocento, in All ombra del lauro. Documenti librari della cultura in età laurenziana, edited by Anna Lenzuni, Silvana, Cinisello Balsamo 1992, pp ; p. 138). The librarian Luigi de Angelis was responsible for the publication of the text of the manuscript in Siena in 1823 (Ioanni Baptistae Zannonio... hos tantum decem quos inter Luciani Samosatensis Deorum Dialogos Livius Guidoloctus Urbinas... selegit...), with the publisher Onorato Porri. De Angelis praises the elegance of the illuminations, with particolar reference to the portrait in the dedicatory initial, believed to depict an effigy of Lucianus, and suggests an attribution to Raffaello. A review of the edition published in the Effemeridi letterarie di Roma puts forward the hypothesis that Guidolotto s dedication of the caustic dialogues to the pope had not been accepted. As a result, the work remained unpublished for a very long time. The existence of the manuscript had actually already been 14

15 recorded at the beginning of the XVIII century in the collection of the Sienese scholar Uberto Benvoglienti, later bequeathed to the Biblioteca comunale. Bibliography Ilari , II, 1845, p. 11; Iacometti 1921, pp. 217; Kristeller 1967, II, p Annalisa Pezzo 15

16 3. Guido de Baysio, Lectura super Decreto sive Rosarium (beginning of the XIV century), ms. K.I.8 Parchment; ff. I, 316, I ; modern foliation (XIX century); mm Decorated pages (ff. 88r, 102v, 132v, 134v, 137v, 148r, 151r, 153v, 220r, 221v, 225r, 232r, 245r, 251r), historiated initials, decorated by wide friezes on the margins, flourish initials, rubricated. Paper binding on boards, leather spine, cornerpieces The codex, made in Bologna, comes from the Chapter Library of Siena. The original title of the manuscript is Lectura super Decreto, but it is known as Rosarium Decretorum, since it contains the extensive comments to Gratianus s Decretum that the canonist Guido da Baisio (Bologna 1246/ ) completed around the year The illuminations, dating back to the third decade of the XIV century, are the work of two separate, important Bolognese artists, one stylistically close to the so-called Primo Maestro di San Domenico (First Master of St Dominic), the other identified as the Sesto Maestro di San Domenico (Sixth Master of St Dominic). The codex is mutilated of the first leaf, which must have contained an illumination. The end of the 157 sections that comprised the work, divided according to the pecia system, is indicated in the margins. The devotional engravings and the oriflamme containing St Bernardino s monogram of the name of Jesus decorating the metal corners of the binding seem to indicate that the manuscript possibly belonged to the Opera del Duomo. Bibliography Ilari, , II, 1845, p. 204; D Ancona 1904, p. 379; Mostra dell antica arte , p. 143 n. 11; Venturi 1906, pp ; Destrez, Chenu 1953, p. 322; Conti 1979, p. 70; De Benedictis 1979, p. 63; Soetermeer 1990, p. 351; Mecacci 1996, p. 29; E. Mecacci, G. Vailati Schoenburg-Waldenburg, in Lo Studio e i testi , p. 41 n. 3; Vailati Schoenburg- Waldenburg 1996, pp , n. 3; Murano 2005, p. 410; Mecacci 2007, p Annalisa Pezzo 16

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18 4. Psalterium-Hymnarium (first quarter XV century), ms. U.II.12 Parchment; ff. I, 433 (435), I ; modern foliation (XIX century) including the flyleaves, mm Pages decorated with foliage friezes (ff. 8r, 86r, 262r, 390r); historiated initials on gilded background with extensions in the margin (ff. 106v, 121v, 287v, 205v, 211r, 219v, 284r, 338r, 347r, 359v), decorated initials, flourish initials, rubricated. Original leather binding on boards with clasps The small codex arrived at the Library after the Napoleonic dissolutions, on 18 January 1811, according to the note on the front flyleaf by the librarian Luigi de Angelis. It came from the Osservanza convent on the Capriola hill, near Siena, where Bernardino Albizzeschi (St Bernardino of Siena) had stayed. Traditionally, it was believed to be the breviary used by Bernardino himself and had been an object of cult in the convent, kept in the saint s cell until 1685 and later in the sacristy. As Albizzeschi s hand is indeed recognisable in some annotations in the margins (ff. 2r, 6v, 16r, 82r), this codex can be identified as the portable breviary mentioned in the inventory of the saint s personal possessions carried out in the convent on 15 June 1444, immediately after his death. The manuscript, dating back to the first quarter of the XV century, was presumably made in Siena, also because the calendar bears notice of the celebration of St Ansano, the patron saint of the town. The decoration was probably carried out by a single miniaturist, working closely with the scriptor or immediately afterwards, as confirmed by the consistency of the iconographic material with the content. The lavish illuminations feature gold leaf decoration and punching. Attached to the breviary is a Vita Beati Francisci Edita a Frate Bonaventura (Life of the Blessed Francis Edited by Frate Bonaventura) (ff. 427rb-432rb). Bibliography Ilari , V. 1846, p. 224; Pacetti 1936, p. 521; Mostra Bernardiniana , p. 34; L. Simonato, in Le arti a Siena , pp n. G.6. Annalisa Pezzo 18

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20 5. Missale romanum (1427 June March 29), ms. X.II.2 Parchment; ff. I, 347, I ; modern foliation (XIX century); mm Illustrated page at f. 162v, decorated page (f. 7r), historiated and decorated initials, rubricated. Modern leather binding on boards Missal commissioned by Antonio Casini after he was appointed cardinal in 1426, as per the colophon, where the scribe Antonio di Angelo da Sansepolcro states that he made it between 8 June 1427 and 29 March 1428, ff. 344v-345r). Casini was a bibliophile and a committed art enthusiast also responsible for comissioning Masaccio s Madonna del Solletico. His coat of arms is often repeated in the decoration, more specifically appearing in the Crucifixion scene (f. 162v) in which the cardinal himself, kneeling before the Cross, is depicted with the Madonna, St John the Evangelist and St Magdalene. The codex arrived at the Library in 1761 together with other Latin manuscripts and books from the Opera della Metropolitana. Although there are no works comparable to this codex within the Sienese environment, its origin is clearly indicated by the presence of St Cerbone, the patron saint of Massa Marittima. Its illuminated decoration is ascribable to a single artist, whose identity is still unknown (the attribution to Nicola di Ulisse da Siena, suggested by Chelazzi Dini, has found no confirmation). There is no agreement on the possibility he might be a Sienese artist, either, even though the northern-italian and French influences visible in his work could be explained by an exposure to the works of Jacopo della Quercia. The late-gothic elements clearly present in his style together with the expressiveness and sentimentality of his figures point towards the hypothesis of a Northern Italian artist working in Siena. Two breves by will of the cardinal Juan de Carvajal, dated 9 September 1353, are transcribed at the end of the codex, granting indulgences to those who prayed before the chapel of St Maria delle Grazie and the altar of St Bernardino in the Cathedral of Siena (f. 346r). Bibliography Della Valle, 1785, p. 245; Ilari , V, 1846, p. 73; Ebner 1896, p. 257; Lusini 1939, p. 258; D Ancona, Aeschlimann, , p. 11; Mostra storica , p. 247 n. 386; Salmi 1956, p. 21; Rotili , II, 1969, p. 21; Van Os 1969, p. 49; Chelazzi Dini 1977, pp ; Inventario dei manoscritti , I, 1978, pp n. 3; G. Garosi, G. Chelazzi Dini, in Il gotico a Siena , pp ; Sani 1982, pp ; Ciardi Dupré Dal Poggetto 1984, pp ; Inventario dei manoscritti , I, pp n. 3; Bollati 2006, pp ; L. Simonato, in Le arti a Siena , pp n. A. 40. Annalisa Pezzo 20

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22 6. Antiphonarium known as Comunella de santi (1442) with later additions (second quarter of the XV century), ms. G.I.8 Parchment; ff. I, 213; modern foliation (XVIII century) recently integrated in pencil; mm Historiated initials (ff. 1r, 4r, 18v, 25r, 40r, 44v, 47r, 62v, 70v, 85v, 96r, 118r, 118v, 149r, 156v, 160r, 161r, 162r, 162v), decorated initials, flourish initials, rubricated. Modern leather binding on boards, with cornerpieces and central boss This antiphonary was transferred to the town library in 1811 from its place of origin, the Augustinian hermitage of San Salvatore in Lecceto near Siena: a provenance confirmed by the coat of arms in the frieze on folio 4r. By virtue of its specific liturgical function the antiphonary, designed for the use of the hermitage community, contains both the daytime and the nocturnal services. The documentary sources record it as Comunella de Santi (Company of Saints) from the first section Commune sanctorum et proprium. It was illuminated in 1442 as part of an extensive artistic programme within the hermitage promoted under the priors Bartolomeo Tolomei and Girolamo Buonsignori. This phase of growth was ratified in 1446 thanks to a bull by Pope Eugene IV, which granted Lecceto independence from the Vicar General, placing it at the head of a vast network of hermitages. In this regard it has been pointed out how the peculiarities of the iconography, closely linked to the liturgical content, denote a specific visual programme, especially created for the Lecceto community. The artist Giovanni di Paolo was immediately and beyond question identified as responsible for the completion of most of the illuminations. These are mainly historiated and decorated initials as well as a depiction of the Triumph of Death placed at the beginning of the service for the dead (f. 162r). This allegory of Death is one of the artist s most celebrated miniatures: Death on a charging black horse is about to strike a wounded man for the second time with an arrow, against the backdrop of a thickly wooded landscape evoking the secluded atmosphere of the hermitage. In this manuscript the Sienese painter brings to fruition his extraordinary ability to render narrative scenes with striking originality. The other illustrations (five initials, of which four historiated with a Marian subject and one decorated) belong to a different hand in both technique and style, and are the work of an extremely accomplished anonymous master who has been variously thought to belong to the Sienese school (sometimes sug- 22