Beschreibung:

Frontispiece of a Commission of Leonardo Loredan, doge of Venice, appointing Hieronimus de Pesaro to high office, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [northern Italy (Venice), sixteenth century] Single leaf cut from the opening of a longer document, with 14 lines in humanist script on front and 28 on reverse, simple red and dark blue one-line initials, a 2-line initial in liquid gold on burgundy ground, text on front set within a realistic dull-gold frame and panels of scrolling foliage in same on purple grounds, a winged lion holding a book in a cabouchon in the upper border, a larger cabouchon in the bas-de-page with a road winding away in a grassy landscape, with the de Pesaro arms hanging from a tree, some flaking of paint from lower left hand corner of border, edges a little darkened, overall good condition on fine cream coloured parchment, 248 by 178mm. Leonardo Loredan (1436-1521: here Leonardus Lauredanus) was the seventy-fifth doge of Venice from 1500 until his death, and his reign saw one of the highpoints of the production of similarly highly illuminated and illustrated ducal documents (see the most recent study on such documents, H.K. Szépes, Venice Illuminated: Power and Painting in Renaissance Manuscripts, 2018, especially pp. 165-7 & 172-3 for examples of other documents issued by Leonardo Loredan). These were produced by the ducal court for presentation to Venetian noblemen on their appointment to high office, often in fine bindings in the form seen in lot 89, and ceremoniously given by the doge himself to the recipient as a badge of office.