Beschreibung:

Ducal Commission. A legal document issued on behalf of Lorenzo Priuli, Doge of Venice, bestowing on Melchiorre Salomon the title of mayor of Motta di Livenza (“Potestas Mothae”), dated 7 August 1557 
A commissione issued by Lorenzo Priuli, Doge of Venice (1556–1559), in 1557, when appointing Melchiorre Salomon (1527–1576) governor (Podestà) of Motta di Livenza, setting out the oath and duties particular to the office. It was customary for the recipients of civic appointments to commission a professional scribe to make a copy of the official record, which would then be taken to an illuminator, and finally to a binder. The manuscripts memorialized the recipient’s service to the Republic and piety and were a means for displaying wealth and prestige.
Melchiorre di Gasparo Salomon was a member of a patrician family, supposed to have come originally from the island of Torcello in the Venetian lagoon. He is shown on the first of two full-page miniatures, “Anno aetatis XXVIIII,” kneeling in prayer before the Cross, with the Castello di Motta di Livenza (Treviso) in the background. The second miniature depicts Iustitia, with her attributes of a scale and sword, the Lion of Saint Mark above, and Salomon’s arms on a shield below. The two illuminations are credited to the workshop of the “Maestro t.o Ve.,” responsible for the majority of illuminations in commissioni dogali completed between 1523 and 1572 (Zuccolo Padrono, “Il maestro ‘T°. Ve.’, e la sua bottega: miniature veneziane del XVI secolo” in Arte Veneta 25 (1971), pp. 53–71).
The document concludes with multiple authentications: the initials of the Grand Chancellor (FSM); a corroboratio, or signature, of the chancellery notary, known as the Segretario alle voci (Luigi Zamberti), attested by another notary (Camillo Rossi); and a note regarding the salary (12 ducats, monthly), signed by a secretary of the superintendent of income and taxes, known as the Governadore delle intrade (Agostino Spinelli).The manuscript is first recorded in the possession of the London bookseller Thomas II Payne, who offered it in a catalogue of 1822 (item 1035), with a hopeful attribution of the miniature to Tintoretto, together with another dogale made for Melchiorre Salomon (item 1034), also dated 1557, which relates to some appointment in Padua. Our document was purchased from Thorpe by Sir Thomas Phillipps; the whereabouts of the other manuscript are unknown. The dogale for a commission granted in 1561 by Doge Girolamo Priuli (1559–1567) to Melchiorre Salomon is Venice, Fondazione Cini, MS 6 (sold by Sotheby’s 1–2 August 1935, lot 155; 26 January 1959, lot 96; Mindful Hands: The Illuminated Masterpieces of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Milan, 2016), no. 80).
Manuscript on vellum (231 x 167 mm). 141 leaves, 22–23 lines, written in a clear secretarial hand (Latin to f. 86, Italian thereafter), initials and chapter headings in red, two full-page miniatures. (A marginal chip and a small hole to final leaf, costing a couple of numerals.)
binding: Venetian red goatskin (242 x 176 mm), 1557, for Melchiorre Salomon, gilt fillet around sides flanked by blind fillets, inner gilt frame of guillochis with marguerite in interstices within gilt fillets, gilt acorn at outer corners, rosettes at outside mid-points of frame, gilt arabesque inner cornerpieces sprouting 4 floral tools, gilt central circle surrounded by leafy tools, acorn at top and bottom, and floral tool at each side, within circle on upper cover “MEL|CHIORI | SALOMO |NO” and on lower cover “M.D.LVII” within floral tools, 3 raised bands, rosette in compartments, traces of 4 pairs of silk ties, plain paper endpapers, gilt edges. (Upper piece of spine and right lower corner of upper cover chipped away, tail of spine damaged; extremities quite rubbed, lacking seal.) 
provenance: Melchiorre Salomon (recipient) — Payne & Foss, London (Catalogue of Books now on sale [1822], p. 42 item 1035: “with the portrait of Melchior Salomon, and a painting of Christ on the Cross, said to be by Tintoretto” — Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792–1872; with his printed tag at foot of spine and inked number on upper pastedown, notes in pencil on flyleaf “From Payne 1824, No. 1035, Portrait by Tintoretto”; Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum in bibliotheca D. Thomae Philipps, Bart. A.D. 1837 [Middle Hill, 1837], p. 65 no. 4217) — William H. Robinson, London — H. P. Kraus, New York (Catalogue 153: Bibliotheca Phillippica … the final selection [1979], item 96). acquisition: Purchased from H .P. Kraus, 1986. 
references: Castellani, Elenco dei Mss Veneti della Collezione Phillipps in Cheltenham (Venice, 1890), p. 16 no. 34; Durrieu, “Les manuscrits à peintures de la Bibliothèque de Cheltenham,” in Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des Chartres 50 (1889), pp. 381–432 (p.421); Szépe, in Le miniature della Fondazione Giorgio Cini: pagine, ritagli, manoscritti (Cinisello Balsamo, 2016), p. 388; Szépe, Venice illuminated: Power and Painting in Renaissance Manuscripts (New Haven, 2018), pp. 183–184 Fig. 5.37.