Stemme Veneziane, in Italian and Latin, ARMORIAL MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER
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Stemme Veneziane, in Italian and Latin, ARMORIAL MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER

Details
Stemme Veneziane, in Italian and Latin, ARMORIAL MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER

[Venice, c.1560]
215 x 155mm. i + 46 paper leaves, each page frame-ruled in blind and divided into two with a ruled horizontal in brown ink, each verso with two coats of arms drawn in ink and coloured with blue and red bodycolour and yellow wash, the accompanying biographical details on the facing recto in brown ink and, where appropriate, a brief summary of the Doge's significance for Venice in Latin in red ink, all written in an italic hand, EIGHTY-TWO COATS OF ARMS, the last five, two of them sketched, are later 16th-century additions (ink corrosion affecting several shields, one on the penultimate leaf entirely hollow, spotting to f.21 not affecting text, occasional spotting to margins). 19th-century limp vellum, title in gilt.

CONTENT:

A brief account of the foundation of Venice on the recto of the second leaf is followed by the sequence of Doges, from Paoluccio Anafesto (697) to Francesco Venier (1554-1556). The manuscript was written during the tenure of his successor Lorenzo Priuli (1556-1559) whose arms were provided as part of the original campaign but whose biography was never supplied. Later the life of Sebastiano Venier (1577-1578) was added opposite Priuli's arms and followed by entries and shields for Nicolò Daponte (1578-1585) and Pasqual Cigogna (1585-1595). At a later date two further coats of arms were sketched in.

A VENETIAN BIOGRAPHICAL CHRONICLE OWNED BY JOHN RUSKIN

PROVENANCE:

1. Mattio ?Realti: florid ownership inscription dated November 1734 with the title 'Libro di Arme de Duci' on front endleaf

2. John Ruskin (1819-1900): lot 117 in 'The Final Portion of the Manuscripts and Library of John Ruskin removed from his residence, Brantwood, Coniston', Sotheby's 18 May 1931. The ownership of a Venetian historical manuscript by the author of the Stones of Venice (1851-53) provokes the irrisistable supposition that he bought it during a trip to the city, perhaps even as an aid to his researches. The last sentence of the final completed entry records that Francesco Venier was 'honorevolmente sepulto' in S. Salvatore: this is the great marble tomb by Jacopo Sansovino.

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