Beschreibung:

CAPITULA OF THE SCUOLA GRANDE OF SANTA MARIA VALVERDE DEL MISERICORDIA, single leaf from an ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Venice, Giustino del fu Gherardino da Forli, circa 1382] 360x265mm, 22 lines, justification 214x160mm, written in brown ink in a gothic rotunda, rubrics in red, 2 HISTORIATED INITIALS ON RECTO AND ONE ON VERSO. All on blue ground with white tracery, and full-page coloured and gold foliate extensions, containing a climbing monkey on recto, and two birds on verso. The miniatures are: (1) initial "I" (3-line) showing a bearded man wearing a red cloak declaiming, introducing the 'Capitolo dela Salutacion'. (2) initial "A" (2-line) portrait of a young man praying, introducing the 'Capitolo del honor dela signoria'. (3) on verso, initial "D" (2-line) portrait of an old man holding a book, introducing the 'Capitolo di pati dal prior ann.' The illumination is clearly by Giustino del Gherardino. He was greatly influenced by Bolognese painting; he also worked for the Doge Antonio Venier, illustrating the Cronaca Veneziana of Caresini in 1383 [Bibl. Marciana cod.It.VII.770] in very similar style. Cf. Marino Zorzi, Biblioteca Marciana , (Venice 1988) pp 112-13. Also Degenhart-Schmitt pp 121-126 The Scuola Grande Santa Maria Misericordia was one of the six major confraternities in Venice, founded in 1303, close to the monastery of the same name. This religious lay confraternity seems to have acted as the guild of the silkweavers, one of the foremost trades in 14th- century Venice. The statutes seem to have first been adopted under the Doge Piero Gradenigo, who died in 1311