Description
Visconti’s extraordinary Book of Hours is considered the gem of Lombard miniature. Splendid facsimile edition made by the Italian publisher Franco Cosimo Panini in his collection of medieval manuscripts called “The Impossible Library”.
Limited edition of 500 numbered copies. Two volumes bound in red velvet with 2 silver clasps, 20 x 27 x 6 cm format and a total of 636 beautifully illuminated pages with a profusion of gold. Both presented in a wooden box with a central opening to the sides with the Visconti coat of arms.
The volume of comments that accompanies the deluxe facsimile editions is also presented in two volumes, texts in Italian.
The title of “Offiziolo Visconti” (or Visconti Book of Hours) designates a Book of Hours in two volumes of exceptional richness, whose miniatures were made at different times by two very different artists. The first, Giovannino de Grassi, painted with some collaborators the first pages for Gian Galeazzo Visconti. After his death in 1402, the work was interrupted, which would be resumed by Belbello da Pavia when Gian Galeazzo’s son, Filippo Maria, became duke in 1412. In his last years, Gian Galeazzo had turned Pavia and Milan into two of the main European centers in the field of the production of illuminated codices, bringing to light a truly unique series of splendid illustrated books dedicated to plants, animals, medicine and the seasons. While the scribe who wrote the text of the prayer book signed his name, Fray Amadeo, the miners, as was customary at the time, remained anonymous and it is only the external evidence that tells us that the drawings on the first part of the manuscript we owe to the imagination of Giovannino de Grassi. The other great miniaturist, who illustrated the second part of the Book of Hours, is Belbello da Pavia. A large part of Belbello’s miniatures in the Visconti Book of Hours are inscribed in the initial phase of his artistic career, which evolved from a compact, detailed and precious style, to the more relaxed and bolder language from the chromatic point of view of the Missal. of Mantua.
Like all the facsimile editions of Franco Cosimo Panini Editore, the Visconti Book of Hours is also accompanied by a volume of scientific commentaries by leading experts and scholars on the subject. The volume, written during the fine-tuning of the work and therefore updated with the latest results obtained throughout the photographic campaign, allows us to delve into all its aspects of the historical and artistic events of the codex, also providing an exhaustive codicological file. and a detailed comparative study on the pages of the precious manuscript.
This work was sold by the Moleiro publishing house for an amount of €21,500, when it marketed the works of the Impossible Library by Franco Cosimo Panini Editore. The copy we offer is complete and in perfect condition at the exceptional price indicated (the wooden box shows slight signs on the back due to the weight of the work and totally invisible due to its location on the floor of the same).
Shipping costs paid by the buyer, according to order and destination. Ask us without obligation (indicating the reference of the article) any doubt.
