THE EMBRACE OF THE RED QUILL AND THE BLACK LETTER FORM:
The Historic Significance of Hand-Painted Initial Letters in Manuscripts and First Printed Books in Florence
Tatiana Shukhin
In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts In Art and the Book Washington, DC Spring 2013 ©2013 Tatiana Shukhin All Rights Reserved CORCORAN COLLEGE OF ART + DESIGN
7 MAY, 2013
We hereby recommend that the thesis prepared under our supervision by Tatiana Shukhin entitled THE EMBRACE OF THE RED QUILL AND THE BLACK LETTER FORM: The Historic Significance Of Hand-Painted Initial Letters In Manuscripts And First Printed Books In Florence be accepted as fulfilling, in part, requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Art and the Book.
Graduate thesis Committee:
(Signature of Student)
Tatiana Shukhin (Printed Name of Student)
(Signature of Advisor)
Georgia Deal (Printed Name of Advisor)
(Signature of Program Director)
Kerry McAleer-Keeler (Printed Name of Program Director)
i TABLE OF CONTENTS
Thesis Statement iii
List of Figures and Illustrations iv
Epigraph v
Chapters
Flipping Pages of the Streets of Florence 1
The Birth of the Initial Letter 2
The Geographical Location and Specifics of the Production Market 4
Key Players in Florentine Book Development 6
The Medici Influence 9
Golden Age of the Florentine Manuscripts 12
Woodcut Illustrations 18
Conclusion: “She Was Called a Flower” 21
Illustration References 23
Notes 32
Bibliography 34
ii THESIS STATEMENT
In 1471, the first book was printed in Florence. This was three decades after the invention of the printing press in Germany, and six years after printing first appeared in
Italy, making Renaissance Florence one of the last places to embrace the new technology.
Florence had a centuries-old tradition of manuscripts; Florentine manuscripts were unique and valued throughout Europe. The rulers of Florence, the Medici family, did not support the printing press, but instead continued to commission the production of manuscripts for their courts and libraries. As printed books were introduced into the
Florentine life, the hand-painted initial letters were the connecting thread that linked the early printed books to the art of the manuscript. Between 1490-1510, the manuscript illumination found a new life in the woodcuts that transformed colorful miniature paintings into the black-and-white interpretations produced by the printing press.
iii LIST OF FIGURES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Fig.1. Fra Angelico, “Glorification of Saints Dominic,” 67v, Missal no. 558, Museo di San Marco, Florence, http://www.royal-painting.com/htmllarge/large-911.html.
Fig.2. Attavante degli Attavanti, Sigismondo de’ Sigismondi, Manuscript no.24, Book of Hours, in The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J.R. Abbey, by J.J.G. Alexander and A.C. De la Mare, (Frederick A. Praeger: London, 1969).
Fig.3. Maestro del Virgilio Mediceo, Opere di Virgilio per Giovanni di Cosimo de’ Medici, in Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, http://www.palazzo- medici.it/mediateca/en/schede.php?id_scheda=340.
Fig.4. Piero Strozzi, Manuscript no.10, Florence, 1453, in The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J.R. Abbey, by J.J.G. Alexander and A.C. De la Mare, (Frederick A. Praeger: London, 1969).
Fig.5. Johannes Petrus de Spoleto, Manuscript no.11, in The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J.R. Abbey, by J.J.G. Alexander and A.C. De la Mare, (Frederick A. Praeger: London, 1969).
Fig.6. Unknown author, Manuscript no.14, Florence, 1460-1470, in The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J.R. Abbey, by J.J.G. Alexander and A.C. De la Mare, (Frederick A. Praeger: London, 1969).
Fig.7. The Irish Gospel Book of St. Gall. in the Library of the Monastery of St. Gallen in Switzerland, Codex 51. Source: St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 51 f. 7r, http://worldupclose.com/exec/page/105/The-Gospel-Book-of-St-Gall.
Fig.8. Fra Angelico, Annonciation, 1430, Florence, San Marco Missal 558, fol. 33v, Museo di San Marco, Florence, http://www.wga.hu/html_m/a/angelico/14/2illumip.html.
Fig.9. Antonio di Bartolommeo Miscomini, Plotinus and Marsilio Ficino, Florence, 1492, http://www.booktryst.com/2012/07/feast-of-late-15th-century-illuminated.html.
Fig.10. Printed by Lorenzo Morgiani and Johannes Petri, published by Piero Pacini, Epistole et Evangelii, Florence, 1495, in Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress.
Fig.11. Printed by Lorenzo Morgiani and Johannes Petri, published by Piero Pacini, Epistole et Evangelii, Florence, 1495, in Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress.
iv The dialog between Vespasiano and Cosimo de’Medici:
—And one day, when I was with him, he said: “What plan can you suggest for the formation of this library?” I replied that if the books were to be bought, it would be impossible, for the reason that they would not be found. Then he went on, “Then tell me what you would do in the matter.” I said it would be necessary to have the books transcribed, where upon he wanted to know whether I would undertake the task. I said I would…
—Christopher de Hamel, A History of Illuminated Manuscript
My Florence! Well contented may’st thou be
With this digression – thee it toucheth not;
Thanks to the people who advise for thee!
Many have justice in their hearts; but long
Delay, through fear, the meditated shot:-
Thy people have it on the very tongue.
—Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio
v 1
FLIPPING PAGES OF THE STREETS OF FLORENCE
The morning sun shines its first rays through the thin openings in wooden shutters, leaving white horizontal stripes on the ceiling. Descending high marble steps, making three sharp turns, a push on a heavy wooden door, and a step out onto a cobble- stoned street, where the sun cannot reach and the shadow inhabits. The street is narrow and winding, cramped between dark grotesque walls of the buildings. Nothing can be predicted - the path can change with each turn or a new street corner. Nothing can be seen, but the moment itself. When the passage suddenly opens, the view is stunning.
The towering beauty of the Duomo, the cathedral of Florence, appears. On the other side of the opening of the Cathedral Square - Piazza del Duomo - there is another passage, again narrow, again dark. Then another piazza, this time with monumental statues, and the Palazzo Vecchio with its asymmetrical tower breaking the austerity of the narrow streets. A fresh breeze comes from the river. Crossing the bridge over the river is like opening a new chapter. Then another palace and another time and place — the entire experience of walking through the streets of Florence is akin to flipping pages of a book.
The text is a narrow black passage leading to a colorful illustration just beyond the margin.
With night falling on the city, the shop signs and gawking people in their twenty-first century clothes slowly disappear. In their place, one imagines Florence as she was six hundred years ago. A bookbinding shop sits neatly at the end of the street, behind a fourteenth century church. A gray-haired Italian man is rebinding old books, and another is working glue on endsheets and dips his brush into a large marble pot. Its years of use are visible in the layer of dried brown glue that coats the sides. The shop sells thick, unprinted volumes for drawing or writing. The books are covered with the bright, decorative papers for which the city is known.
The streets of Florence are shrouded in the shadows of walls with closed doors.
As people enter or exit through any door, it is tempting to take a peek at what is inside. 2
There are more treasures to be found here where the people live than are displayed in any museum: tiled courtyards and gardens, stairs with centuries-old rails, and windows of stained glass. The city of Florence itself is laid out like a codex. While the exteriors of buildings are an unremarkable dark gray, sometimes gilded with yellow streetlights, there is a vibrant, hidden life within. The same happens with a book, the outside so different from what lies beneath. The old proverb rings true: “don’t judge a book by its cover.” This is especially true if the book is the one first printed in the fifteenth century.
THE BIRTH OF THE INITIAL LETTER
Today, books are usually valued for their context, design, and illustrations, but often no one values the book for its initial letters. Since the creation of a codex book, a first letter has stressed the beginning of the text, chapter, paragraph, or even a sentence.
Almost every medieval manuscript was designed to begin with an enlarged opening initial, sometimes simply in the same ink as the text, frequently in traditional red or blue, or on occasion a multitude of bold colors. A large number of medieval manuscripts had decorated initials on every page throughout the book. Illumination added more charm; illustrators decorated lettering and ornamentation in gold and brilliant colors.
While the colored illustrations and designs were based largely on the art of the painter, the embellishment of the initial letters and of the lettering in general was based mainly on the art of the penman, the scribe, or the calligrapher. In the cases of enlarged initial letters and calligraphic ornaments, the illuminators did their part when the copyist had finished and left blanks for the illuminators to fill in1.
The relationship between early printed text and that of painted initial letters and
decoration is significant because it stays on a threshold of two eras: manuscript era — a
time period of singularity and handcrafting — and the era of industrialism and
technology. A typographic correlation exists in the main hall at the Library of Congress.
There are two bibles on display; one bible was handwritten, while another one was 3 printed on a letterpress by Gutenberg. Despite the difference in printing, the two books look absolutely the same. The invention of the printing press did not immediately eliminate manuscript writing and illumination. Following the design of manuscripts, printers of incunabula (the word incunabula refers to books that were printed using movable metal type up to the year 1500) also included a large size initial letter for the first word of each chapter or only at the beginning of the book.
The question bears asking: why did the first printers produce new books imitating manuscripts as perfectly as possible? The fear of doing something different, along with the strong will to be prudent, produced the replication of what was done before (the production of the manuscripts) only using new technology. There is always a period of adjustment after any innovation. Some time was needed to rethink readability and the fact that text can be printed in a different typeface. If before the books were available only for small communities of monks at monasteries, with the invention of the printing press books started to spread to towns and cities. Thinking about ordinary people, not just a few members of a convent who were able to read easily handwritten manuscripts with Gothic or cursive letters, created a dramatic shift in book production.
Not only the text itself remained important in the book, but also how the text was seen and read became an inalienable aspect as well. Before the transition in changing the meaning and understanding of the book, the first printed books were duplicates of manuscripts.
Andrew Pettegree, Professor of Modern History at the University of St. Andrews, calls the early printed books “half finished goods” that required hand adornment: the provision of initial letters, headings and decorative paragraph markers. After printing hundreds of copies the printer needed to sell them to unknown buyers. Similarly the buyers had to buy books, which they did not commission but simply desired to have because they saw them at the bookshop. That would never have happened with manuscripts that were always ordered by buyers from the scribes they knew personally. 4
Relationship transformed; no longer was it between the buyer and the person who produced the book but rather a relationship began to be forged between the buyer and the book as an object.2 With the very first printed book there was a chance to get a book
which was personalized with the skill of the artists’ hand and commission the
manuscript from the preferred scribe, illustrator, and binder.
THE GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION AND SPECIFICS OF THE PRODUCTION
MARKET
The narrow time period of hand-painted initial letters and woodcut illustrations
in early printed books — between 1490 and 1508 — needs closer examination because of
Florence’s unique history and original attributes. In Renaissance time, Florence, located
in the middle of Italy, was the center of arts and humanism, in contrast to trading
Venice, which had a water gate to Arab and African countries, as well as Russia, or
politicized Rome, with its Italian government and debates. Therefore the Florentine
labor force, if broken down into its constituent parts, probably looked quite different
from what was found in most other European cities. There were textile workers
producing wool and silk, construction workers from manual workers to stone carvers,
and highly skilled artisans, especially those in the luxury crafts, because of the greater
number of rich consumers. Considering the location of Florence and the fact that there
were not large periodic fairs, such as those at Bruges or Antwerp, most of the products
were sold only locally.3
The one clear exception to the generalization that the products of these artisans
were not primarily directed to foreign markets, is the book. Even before the invention of
the printing press, Florentine humanist manuscripts were demanded abroad, and the
humanist script developed at the end of the fourteenth century had become the norm
throughout Italy by the 1430s. The presence of the pope in the city from 1434 to 1443,
and especially the arrival of the church council in 1439, helped to bring the quality of 5 locally produced manuscripts to the attention of the many churchmen who came from aboard.
With the introduction of the printing press, book production expanded exponentially, sometimes exceeding what demand in any local market could absorb.
Book selling was the only business, besides the textile industry, which was oriented for foreign markets. In 1471 the first book was printed in Florence. This was six years after printing first appeared in Italy. Eighteen presses were established by the end of the century; printing books mostly for the general public. By 1500, Florence was the fourth location in Italy known for its plethora of printed books. Florentine publishers could not count on a strong local demand for books, such as Rome’s large clerical population or
Venetian access to foreign markets; therefore most of books went abroad. Unfortunately, due to its central location, limited local market, and unsupportive dukes, the printing production gradually declined in Florence during the next century and came only to six or nine percent of printed books in Italy through the first half of seventeenth century.4
The Florentine historic turning point happened in 1491 with the election Jerome
Savonarola as a Prior of the convent of San Marco. His inspiration and calling for
reforms in civil manners and also in the conduct of the church gave Savonarola
popularity in Florence. For three years Florence was in constant uproar. It lost its power,
trade was paralyzed, and there was plague and famine. But even after the execution of
Savanarola in 1498, the troubled times did not stop, especially the uprising in Pisa. The
political and legal experimentation continued, and in 1506 Machiavelli, then Florentine
secretary of state, sought to end the abuses of the mercenary troops, and organized the
first national militia in Italy.5
All through the period of chaos, the Florentine printers were busy putting out
their humble popular pamphlets and books, some of which were illustrated. The first
Florentine woodcut book bearing a printed date was the Specchio di Croce of 1490. By
1508, when Federico Frezzi’s Quatriregio was printed, all woodcut illustrations were 6 made and constantly used through the greater part of the sixteenth century. Of the
Epistole et Evangelii, only two copies are known to be printed before 1501 (one of which is located at the Library of Congress), but there are scattered copies of at least half a dozen editions printed after that date, one of them as late as 1578.6
Florentines valued books as high art objects along with their context publishing
of mostly local authors. The best example is Dante’s Divine Comedy where more than 50
percent of the copies from the fifteenth century are Florentine. Hand-decorated initials
and border decoration are often found in printed books, particularly in incunabula,
although woodcut initials and illustrations would also be used. Decorative initials are
the most commonly occurring ornamental details in manuscripts and first printed
books, and their size and decorative qualities represent a hierarchical system, which was
also reflected in the cost of the initials.7
KEY PLAYERS IN FLORENTINE BOOK DEVELOPMENT
Florence was the capital of the Italian Renaissance where art and the world
collided not only in paintings, sculpture, architecture and writing, but also in the
production of manuscripts. Manuscripts occupied an equally strong niche among the
greatest art pieces in Florence. Therefore, the elite did not want to recognize the new art
of printing. As a result, it took longer for the printing press to settle in Florence than in
any other part of Italy.8 Florence itself was as an art gem, so any printed book could not
be compared with the beauty of the city. Only manuscripts had the same visual and
inner power as Florence itself.
It is not only the beauty of the painted illuminations for which Italian
manuscripts became known for; the writing of the text in the most velvet black and red
ink in indicative of the Florentine books of this period. The vellum used by the Italian
scribes of the fifteenth century had a polished surface and perfect purity of tint, which
added to the artistic perfection. Florence, Venice, Pisa, Siena, Bologna, and Verona were 7 all important centers for the production of fine illuminated manuscripts. Nevertheless,
Florence stands alone as the most famous in this art genre. It was Florence, where wealthy foreign princes sent their commissions, when they desired to possess an exceptionally beautiful manuscript.9
The most famous Florentine painter Fra Beato Angelico worked at the Dominican
Convent of San Marco in Florence in the first half of the fifteenth century before the
invention of the printing press. Fra Angelico painted frescoes on the walls of the
convent’s cells in the same style as pages of manuscripts during this time period. His
painting style was utterly unrealistic in drawing and still more so in colour; he worked
with absence of light and shade, but painted all his figures glowing with the most
brilliant effects of gold and colour. Fra Angelico painted in a style far earlier than that of
his own date, and with certain technical peculiarities which, as a rule, are to be found
only in the illuminations of manuscripts.10 At the Museo di San Marco in Florence, there is a collection of the manuscripts illuminated by Fra Angelico on display at the former convent’s library. Illumination in the manuscript Glorification of Saint Dominic, 67v,
Missal no. 558, is a miniature version of Angelico’s wall frescoes (Figure 1).
The purity and innocence in the faces of the angels are the same as on those found on the roof from fresco The Birth of Christ. The large pictorial initial letter I combines four portraits of Dominican saints, which are placed at the each end of the letters’ serifs. Without the traditional knowledge of typography, Angelico felt the movement of the letter and followed the letter’s natural flow, curving the serifs into circles, therefore creating rotundas as a familiar background for the portraits. He also places full size figures in a circle at the very end of the semi-curved letter’s stem using the space around the letter, which is usually forgotten. This whole page composition approach is shaped around the main initial, which is placed not in a center of the page nor in the upper left corner. The initial I is placed in a lower half of the page on the left side of the text balancing with the oval portrait of Saint Dominic surrounded by angels at 8 the top of the page. The page layout has a circular movement both as a whole and in details. The manuscript’s page is a true work of art and references the monumental wall frescos.
One of the most enthusiastic art patrons of Europe, Mathias Corvinus, King of
Hungary from 1458 to 1490, was one of the first of the Northern monarchs who sought to introduce Italian learning and Italian arts in his courts. He had a large number of the most magnificent manuscripts written and illuminated for him by various scribes and illustrators of Florence. He also imitated Italian rulers in his effort to assemble a library of manuscripts, which reflected the interests of humanist educators.11
Among the miniaturists who worked for the King, the most famous was a
Florentine named Attavante degli Attavante, a pupil and friend of Fra Angelico, who
was born in 1452. It would be impossible during this time to publish a book identical to
Attavante’s pages. The detailed border was impractical to reproduce in woodcut
printing. The shadows would have to be created by cutting out parallel lines instead of
smooth watercolor shades that would give a different feel to the page. Also, it would be
tremendously difficult to register the layers. The printing press was intended for fast
work, not for precise meticulous strokes, which takes a huge amount of time to
accomplish.
The manuscript no.24 Book of Hours from the library of English collector Major
J.R. Abbey (1894-1969) was written by Sigismondo de’ Sigismondi and illuminated by
Attavante in the late fifteenth century (Figure 2). The historiated initial D with the scene
of the Kiss of Judah emerges from the border on the page creating the tight connection
with it and is placed firmly on the page leaving the visually correct amount of white
space for the text. Without the D the page would be broken into two uneven parts: the
light text and the heavy border. Here, the initial not only indicates the beginning of the
text but also plays a unifying role. The inclusion of medallions with saints and weaving
putti (the winged male baby angels) within golden vine scroll adds richness to the page. 9
THE MEDICI INFLUENCE
Cosimo de Medici, the aristocratic banker and statesman, was patron not only of the fine arts, but also of humanist libraries. When a small group of Florentine intellectuals asked for his support in revival of the classical world and litterae humaniores,
Cosimo agreed because he admired men of letters. He was introduced to the initial wave of humanists in Florence; among them was Niccolo Niccoli and Poggio Bracciolini.
These humanists acquainted Cosimo with the classical world and inspired him to seek out, collect, and study its literature.
At the time of manuscripts, the private libraries were just another type of collection. The books were never found alone in houses or palaces; rather they were flanked by ornamental gardens, botanical gardens, collections of portraits, sculpture, coins, and archeological objects. The difference between an art collection and a book collection was only that the book collection transformed into public library. The first private book collection in public libraries and museums occurred in Florence with the opening of the San Marco Library and Uffizi Gallery.12
In the age of the Renaissance in Florence, the great ruling family of Medici
owned the most famous collection. The Medici were active in the wider field of
collecting, seeking prestige and honor for their houses and the legitimacy that derived
from collecting.13 What they collected, created the style of the city and played a role in
Florentine cultural history. The special environment of private libraries with wooden
shelves inside of walls from floor to ceiling, created an atmosphere of intellect and
study. The model of history was seen through books. The Italian private libraries had an
impact on society; they were working tools for professionals, instruments of cultural
identity and philological work for humanist intellectuals.
Cosimo added books to his library, wisely choosing quality over quantity. With
time, he would have the most precious library, not the biggest. Cosimo supported the
ardent book collector Niccolo. With the endless supply of florins from the Medici bank, 10
Niccolo formed an uncommonly large personal library of 800 books.14 Cosimo built the first library in Italy in the convent of San Marco, which became a popular destination for leading intellectuals from all of Europe during the Renaissance.
Vespasiano da Bisticci, a famous Florentine publisher, bookseller, and copyist in the 1440s, employed numerous copyists and illuminators to produce the Greek and
Latin classics for wealthy nobles, as well as liturgical works for the monasteries. High class elite throughout Europe, such as rulers, popes, collectors, and scholars were among his clients.15 When in the early 1460s, Cosimo built another convent library at the Badia in Fiesole overlooking Florence, the greatest part of the collection was provided by
Vespasiano’s 45 scribes. They, within two years, copied nearly 200 manuscripts based on a canon list prepared at Cosimo’s request by Tommaso Parentucelli, who became the pope Nicholas V, and later founded the Vatican library.
The increasing richness of decoration of Medicean manuscripts, culminating in the early 1460s, had two important results. It established Florentine workshops, especially that of Vespasiano and the decorators to whom he sub-contracted, in the forefront of humanistic manuscript production in Italy, and also allowed Florence to become a major bibliophiles center; one that following decades would study when setting about the development of their own libraries.
Since Medicean patronage was outstanding in Florence during this time period, two brothers Piero and Giovanni de’Medici exerted considerable influence over the development of certain trends and innovations in manuscript decoration. The gratuitous inclusion of classicizing motifs in the decoration of their manuscripts is most likely to have been prompted by the Medici patrons and family rather than by the decorators.
Richly decorated manuscripts allowed for increasing importance of the border and the initial letter. The architectural detail of the vine pattern decorated by Francesco d’Antonio on the inside of the arch between the Cappella dell’Annunziata and its sacristy made its way to the books as its border because d’Antonio was often employed 11 by Vespasiano on Piero de’Medici’s books.16 The house of Medici influenced the illuminators to adapt decorative ideas which suited to the tastes of patrons.
The increasing richness and expanding width of the complex borders of the most costly of these manuscripts was due to the increasing financial resources available, but the nature of the border more than likely developed from the taste of the Medici family itself. To please their patrons, Florentine decorators, such as Ser Ricciardo and Francesco d’Antonio, rapidly developed their skill in pure naturalism, and populated their borders to an increasing extent with “beautifully-rendered, sensitively-observed birds and animals,” sometimes enlarging them to a scale, which over-balanced the structure of the vine-stem border17 (Figure 3).
Their tastes for finely produced manuscripts with rich decoration, place the
Medici brothers at the beginning of the Humanist movement during the last third of the fifteenth century and set the model for princes to form libraries of splendidly-decorated manuscripts. The libraries of King Matthias Corvinus, Frederigo da Montefeltro and
King Ferrrante of Aragon date principally from the 1470s, and represented the best examples of this movement. At this time, when the circulation of texts and books was rapidly increasing due to the introduction of printing, manuscripts were collected by such patrons in larger numbers and produced in higher quality as precious objects, valued as works of art in their own right. Piero de’Medici listed in his inventories virtually no books written on paper, but only on vellum; similarly, later, Vespasiano da
Bisticci praised Federigo Montefeltro for the rigorous exclusion of printed books from his library.18
Other princely patrons who commissioned many manuscripts during the 1470s
and 1480s, were Lorenzo di Piero de’Medici and his son Giovanni, later Pope Leo X, who
also had a highly-developed taste for the richness and small-scale intricacy of the
illuminated manuscripts. A large proportion of the finely-produced manuscripts in the
Corvinus, Montefeltro and Medici libraries of the 1470s and 1480s were written and 12 decorated in Florence, normally through the workshop of Vespasiano da Bisticci. This did not occur only because of the Medici’s patronage, but also due to the organization developed by Vespasiano. By 1470, Florence had the finest scribes and decorators and the most efficient manuscript production workshops available to cater to the demands of the humanists.19
In 1480, the bookshop, which had for so many years been a center for the
meeting of learned men in Florence, passed from the hands of Vespasiano to those of
Andrea de Lorenzo. The effect of printing had begun to be felt and was already obvious
by this time. Beautiful copied manuscripts were no longer able to compete with printed
books, nor command the price they had brought in the heyday of Vespasiano’s career.
Vespasiano wrote about the library of Urbino: “Had there been one printed volume, it
would have been ashamed in such company.”20 Not wishing to continue his trade under such changed conditions, the bookseller gave up his shop and retired to the village
Antella, where he devoted his years to writing.21
GOLDEN AGE OF THE FLORENTINE MANUSCRIPTS
Between 1455-1484, Florence experienced great achievement in illumination as well as in the other arts. It was ironic that illumination flowered so much later in Italy than elsewhere and that it was at its height just when printing arrived. Illumination was bound to succumb to an end but it held out for a surprising length of time. The
Renaissance, which is associated with that time, had its effect on miniatures, as well as on initials. The humanist book, which is apt to associate with Roman type and printing, thus had its origins much earlier. There was an enormous demand for books, especially in Florence. 22
Not least among the innovations of Vespasiano was that he had stock of new
books at his shop to be purchased by buyers whereas in ordinary days the buyers
ordered books to be written for them. At Vespasiano’s shop and at other Florentine 13 shops, scribes, who were paid, started to work fast. The expeditious of work caused the change in writing style. The pen, in beautiful round humanistic style, should be lifted at each letter. In order to write faster, scribes began to slope their script and join the letters into a cursive script.23
Almost all the Florentine manuscripts from the fifteenth century were written in
a round, formal humanistic script: the lettera formata of the humanists. This type of
handwriting is called a “rapid calligraphic hand.” Sometimes this style of writing was
used by scribes, as a faster alternative to the formal hand, but by the beginning of the
fifteenth century, it was established as a book script in its own right, known today as
Roman. According to researcher J.J.G. Alexander, this rapid calligraphic writing may
have begun as the version of humanistic script that scholars, such as Niccolo Niccoli,
employed to copy books intended for their own use. In the hands of skilled scribes, it
transformed its origins and obtained distinguished characteristics such as roundness,
uprightness, and solidity. Niccolo also initiated a style, which influenced the
development of cursive writing.24
Florentine manuscripts can be recognized immediately by the text layout,
character of the script and a border style called “white vine scroll.” The text layout on a
page is usually written as one wide column, similar to how the general codex books are
known now, and in comparison to German manuscripts where the text was placed in
two narrow columns. The script is written in humanistic round script. Finally, the
“white vine scroll” border placed in three different positions: filling either all four, three,
or only one margins on the page. Examples from the collection of Major J.R. Abbey show
how the “white vine scroll” differentiates in books. The initial V in the manuscript
written by Piero Strozzi is placed in a square shape and attached to the border, which
fills all four margins (Figure 4). In the manuscript written by Johannes Petrus de Spoleto,
the initial C is placed inside the horizontal rectangular and attached to the three-sided
border (Figure 5). The initial I in the manuscript from the same collection is attached to 14 the corner border (Figure 6).
The illumination of fifteenth century Florentine manuscripts is underlined by the
“white vine” scroll, the form of interlacing plant scroll in which the emphasis is on the stalk, not the leaves or the fruits. The scroll is left uncoloured and outlined. Its origin took roots from the monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland, as early as the seventh century, and then arrived into Northern and central Italy. The St. Gall Gospels manuscript, now housed in a monastery at St. Gall, was produced by monks in Ireland around 750 and was brought with them when St. Gall was founded. The ornamentation of the border is woven with the “white vine scroll”. Also, the initial of Chi was outlined with this characteristic white border as well (Figure 7).
In Florence, the revivers of classical culture and what the humanists called
“antique script” adopted a form of decoration, which was Irish in origin.25 This kind of
border was simple and sober. It left the text and the script to make their own aesthetic
impression. In books for Medici, the border transformed the humanistic “white-vine”
into increasing complexity and richness, adding birds, insects, animals, and putti. The
“white-vine” style of Florence at one time seemed to become incapable of further
development and was replaced in 1470 by flower and leaf sprays. The style influenced
by Fra Angelico, shows the richness of colour of the school and a certain lingering of
Gothic drapery patterns, such as in the example of Annonciation, 1433, Florence (Figure
8).
These innovations in the appearance of a book coincided with a larger humanist
effort that inspired a shift in the classical text from a purely literary concern to a visual
one. The aesthetics of the entire codex played a main part in creating the book. As a
result, the value of the book was equally divided by the text and decorations, clearly
distinguishing the Florentine humanist manuscript from other styles. Combined with
“white- vine” scroll, the attractive script was written on creamy white vellum. Books in
Florence libraries, such as Cosimo’s and Niccolo’s, were more than texts to be learned, 15 they were objects to behold.26
The great beauty of manuscripts was born from the surrounding world. When
people live in rooms with flowers, birds, leaves, and ornaments on ceilings and walls,
there is often an inner drive for fine art and beauty within every soul; art mimics reality.
Artists who painted interiors often decorated books as well, and the Italians themselves
wanted to keep their books as beautiful objects. The uniqueness of the first books
printed in the city of Florence is that those books retained their hand-painted initial
letters and illustrations. Only in Renaissance Florence was it possible to produce such
unique books, due to the abundance of artists, poets, and writers who lived and created
there at that time: Leon Battista Alberti, Verrochio, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, to name but a
few. During the Golden Age in Florence, all aspects of art reached their peak and book
illustrations aimed for the same artistic perfection as the frescos, paintings, architecture,
and sculpture.
The tradition of manuscripts in Florence was so strong that the production of
manuscripts did not disappear immediately after the invention of the printing press. It
seems on the contrary, that wealthy people still preferred to pay for handmade artistic
beauty instead of printed books. The Florentine elite turned their backs on the new art of
printing, because they could not understand the meaning of new black-and-white book
layout. Additionally, the Medici family gave the press little support. A comparison
between the number of incunabula printed in Florence and those in Venice reveal a great
disparity between the output of the two cities. Therefore, up until the end of fifteenth
century fewer than a thousand books were printed in Florence, in contrast to the almost
4,000 editions in Venice. Florentine books also tended to be less bulky than Venetian
ones, and this difference in size reflects a difference in character. While many books
were printed in Venice with an eye on the market of lecturers and students in the
neighboring university of Padua, Florence did not have a comparable institution within
its territory; neither its own studio nor that of Pisa (established only in 1472) was as large 16 or as renowned.27 Thus, there were no Florentine counterparts, such as the massive legal
and theological tomes produced by Jenson and others. As for vernacular texts, most of
those printed in Florence were short, often works of poetry. The proportion of major
literary works was relatively low: only one Commedia, none of Petrarch’s poetry except
the Trionfi; of Boccaccio’s prose, only one Filocolo, one Decameron, and no Fiammetta.
Illuminated manuscripts continued to circulate widely after the invention of printing, whether as scholar’s books brought back from foreign study and travel by humanists in Italy, or as gifts exchanged between rulers as a diplomatic present in the early sixteenth century.28 The book was the ideal gift because of its size. It was hard to give a monumental painting or sculpture as a gift, as a result small portable size painting started to come to fashion around the eighteenth century in the Netherlands.
The book is also a combination of beauty and knowledge where every page is a piece of art. For that reason alone, antiquarians are selling manuscripts now by the page. A time of cheap fast printing, the demand for the picturesque manuscripts rose; Florentines wanted to hold the last straw of beauty in their hands.
Boccaccio enthusiastically began to translate the Greek classics, and contributed the first translation of the greatest of them all, Homer. Also, in Florence, at the first time the edition of all the works of that incomparable author was printed, which were issued in 1488 in two volumes folio.29 The vellum copy is still preserved at the library of St.
Marco in Venice and signed: “The beauty of the vellum, the width and whiteness of the margins, the freshness and brilliancy of the illuminations, render this copy perhaps the most costly classical bijou in existence”.30
The impact of Florentine manuscript’s script was that, in other cities in Italy,
early printed books used a font modeled on humanistic hand, known as Roman type.
Richardson wrote: “By the time printing was introduced to Italy, this [humanistic script]
had become accepted as the norm for literary Latin texts and would therefore have been
that which was most familiar and easily legible from the point of view of the 17 sophisticated public at which the early Italian printers were aiming”.
Plotinus and Marsilio Ficino, printed in Florence in 1492 by Antonio di
Bartolommeo Miscomini, includes illuminated initials (Figure 9). The black block of text, written in humanistic style, contrasts the golden initial P. The round top part of the initial brings the face of a scribe into a focus. The leafy border peacefully rests on one side of a margin. The page is harmonically designed.
WOODCUT ILLUSTRATIONS
Paul Kristeller in his book Early Florentine Woodcuts wrote that book-illustration, more than any other branch of industrial art, was characterized by the taste of the people, because the demand for it came from them, and it was especially designed to catch their fancy. Here, then, in the realm of popularized art, the taste of the people is sovereign.31 The manuscript’s illuminations transformed into woodcut illustrations. The foundation of illuminations and decorative initials reached its peak and prepared a good basis for the art of illustration to carry on. All genres of art are wrapped together in a tight knot within a particular time frame and in a particular place. Like Egyptian reliefs, illustrating figures and animals, reflect these images in monumental sculpture. In the fifteenth century, the Florentine books stood out among Italian illustrated books, not only for the beauty of their manuscripts, but also for their first unique engravings.
During the Golden Age in Florence all aspects of art reached its peak and book illustrations rose to the same level as frescos, paintings and sculpture in artistic perfection. The use of woodcuts in Florentine books was almost exclusively confined to popular poetic works and religious tractates. Florentine printers of the fifteenth century had the good taste not to decorate scientific or historical works with engravings merely to attract the public. In the Golden Age, Florentine printers made the wise decision, in which books to include woodcuts and in which ones it might not be appropriate. Book illustration was a serious matter for the Florentine printers, the same as it was for 18 illuminators. They tried different methods of printing illustrations. First, they used copper plate to engrave their illustrations; Florentine printers were the first printers to use this material. Even though these printers produced outstanding results from copper plates, they decided that woodcuts were the best option for the book illustration, simply because the nature of the woodcuts resembled that of the type, and also, because they could be easily printed together.
Having a great sense of the artistic style, Florentines’ used illustrations with outline drawing, with light, and simplicity. Represented scenes were generalized; they did not portray any particular story just the essentials of the meaning. So, the picture was no longer “the writing of those who could not read.” The reader knew, what was written about and sought to enrich the imagination in a picture. Each woodcut is a miniature: “having an artistic value and meaning of its own, well-rounded compositions, complete in themselves, with background of landscape or architectural interiors, calculated to give an impression of a perfect picture.”32 The Florentine woodcuts are surrounded by a small border. These borders are very special characteristic of the Florentine woodcuts, and became an intimate part of them.
Florentine printers, guided by their fine taste and intuitive artistic vision, inserted these cuts in a way that the proportions of the cuts would be exactly suited to the type, and that the letterpress would be arranged around them in an artistic manner.
Illustrations served to adorn the printed text, to brighten the page by breaking up the monotony of the letterpress, in books designed not for study but for religious purpose or for amusement, and for people, not for high rank persona.33 In regard to the transmission of composition by monumental painters, the spreading of woodcuts and engravings in the fifteenth century had a notable effect, especially on late fifteenth century illumination.
“One of the most notable books” at the Rosenwald Collection in the Library of
Congress is the Epistole et Evangelii, Florence, 1495 (Figure 10). Printed by Lorenzo 19
Morgiani and Johannes Petri for the publisher Piero Pacini, this book is one of the only two surviving copies of Epistole et Evangelii in Italian. The pages are profusely illustrated with 144 narrative woodcuts, plus 24 smaller woodcuts with half-length images of saints and prophets.34
The tradition of manuscript illumination was followed by the woodcuts,
transforming colorful miniature painting into black-and-white interpretation. The faces
on woodcuts have lively expressions, the hand motions of represented figures tell about
their feelings, therefore these characteristics bring bodies to life. The reader can even
notice slightest movement of the lips, almost hearing what figures are saying. The
garment folds form the volume of the body. The airy figures do not stand firmly on the
ground, but rather fly, touching the ground with their tiptoes (Figure 11).
The background of these woodcuts of the fifteenth century is very detailed, such
as windows with curtains, ornamented walls, floor with tiles as on a chessboard, giving
perspective the same as on paintings by Florentine artist Paolo Uccello. Also, arches
have black shadows to reflect the depth, and grass is represented by different
thicknesses. The light represents with lots of white areas, which add air and breathe.
To compare with German woodcuts, Florentine woodcuts are full of lively
figures, whose bodies express their moods and actions by slight hand gesture, or head
movement; where German woodcuts are interpreted as being flat without any
expression. Also, German woodcuts incorporate color, while Florentine woodcuts are
black-and-white, the color is simulated by the stroke. The typical Florentine illustrations
have white lines cut out from black ground, as well as black lines from a white.35
In fact, in Florentine books, pictures are always surrounded by a little border or
frame, in which a small white pattern is picked out from a black ground,36 as in the woodcut Last Supper from the Epistole et Evangelii. Here, the attention to details is noticeable. Christ is placed at the very end of the table, instead of the usual middle place. There are a lot of small size dishes with various foods on the table. The figures 20 have a lively dialog, everything is in motion, and even the curtains are moving by the wind on the background. The large size flowers on the black background correspond to the square tiled floor. The border helps the composition by including the same stroke as on woodcut. The analogy echoes in another woodcut, in which Christ is sailing on the boat, the border echoes the waves by using similar small strokes.
The scenes of interior and exterior meet on the same page. The scene of Advent of an Angel, also from the Epistole et Evangelii, represents several shades from light gray to black, achieved by different saturation and thickness of strokes, such as in the night street, the dark grass, the fence with the gate, the mountains on the background, and the actual arrival of the angel.
The text is always found around the illustrations, therefore not separating one from another. That gives the book a smooth flow of text, not breaking it by looking at illustration, but supporting the text.
The most important part of all woodcuts in the Epistole et Evangelii is the placements of the hands. The hands with long fingers tell an unspoken story of the person by holding quilt, papers, and books. Hands also tell about emotions, whether the person is seated in waiting position, or explaining something to another.
The printers of the Epistole et Evangelii stated in a long colophon at the end of the book that “the illustrations provide both spiritual and physical consolation for the reader, thereby demonstrating remarkable sophistication about the role of images. And in order to give pleasure to the eye of the buyers, we have placed the proper stories
[woodcut illustrations], arranging them as you see in their places: so that the soul is spiritually consoled: the body also may participate in some consolation.”37
Many Florentine woodcuts performed in the style of great contemporary
Florentine painters, such as Domenico Ghirlandaio, Alessandro Botticelli, and Filippino
Lippi. Paul Kristeller wrote: “in studying the Florentine woodcut we notice on the one
part a conciseness of composition, dramatic vivacity, and energy of movements, or an 21 expression of exalted sentiment characterized by Botticelli and his school. On the other side, we have quiet storytelling and detailed compositions accompanied by great freedom of design, as represented by Ghirlandaio.” In 1481, the celebrated Dante was issued with engravings by Baccio Baldini after the designs of Botticelli.38
An English bibliographer and scholar Alfred Pollard wrote in his book Early
Illustrated Books back in 1893 that “the two classes of books – those on good paper and in
large handsome type, and those on poor paper with small type carelessly printed, but
with delightful woodcuts – were issued side by side, but the beauties of the two were
never combined, and the Florentine printers would doubtlessly have been greatly
surprised if they had been told that it was the chapbooks which were to win the day.”39
The richness of Florentine manuscript illuminations gave birth to the Florentine
woodcuts. The small blocks are filled with figures, landscapes, and architectural elements, cut in fine contours, highlighted with shading, and produced by a white-on- black technique that provides depth to the images. Woodcuts are truly miniature illuminations. With the printed books, the color of Florentine illustration disappeared,
but not the sense of beauty, elegancy, and harmony in composition and in representation
of the images.
CONCLUSION: “SHE WAS CALLED FLOWER”
Rome acted as long as she was strong;
And in that happy and not-far-off time,
Gave birth to a young maiden such
As to be considered her equal.
She was called “Flower,” which was
truly her name,
And I shall tell of her deeds.
. . . . 22
Of her who descended from my descendant
Florence, flower of every good root,
To make herself empress
As her mother had been in past ages.
—Fazio degli Uberti (d.1370)
A Renaissance poet Fazio degli Uberti beautifully proclaimed in his poem
“Rome Acted as Long as She Was Strong” that Florence was represented as the daughter of Rome, which means that Florence in the Renaissance time period took the same central place in Europe, as Rome did during the time of the great Roman Empire. The role of Florence cannot be underestimated: “Flower of every good root,” indeed Florence was the city where artists, poets, sculptors were eager to put artistic roots down.
As book creation evolved through the early period after the invention of the printing press, Renaissance Florence provided the bridge that allowed the humanistic script of manuscripts to retain their humanistic elements as they were transformed by the metal type in new printing process. The illuminations painted in manuscripts continued to exist in woodcut form.
Many twentieth and twenty-first century artists’ books draw their inspiration in that time and in that tradition. By combining the techniques of letterpress, woodcuts, and other printmaking mediums, modern book artists transform books into unique objects and art pieces. Artists’ books are deservedly objects that belong in libraries, museums, and rare book collections. 23
ILLUSTRATION REFERENCES
Fig.1. Angelico, Fra. “Glorification of Saints Dominic,” 67v, Missal no. 558, Museo di San Marco, Florence. http://www.royal-painting.com/htmllarge/ large-911.html. 24
Fig.2. Attavanti, Attavante degli, Sigismondo de’ Sigismondi. Manuscript no.24, Book of Hours. In The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J.R. Abbey, by J.J.G. Alexander and A.C. De la Mare. Frederick A. Praeger: London, 1969. 25
Fig.3. Mediceo, Maestro del Virgilio. Opere di Virgilio per Giovanni di Cosimo de’ Medici. In Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence. http://www.palazzo-medici.it/ mediateca/en/schede.php?id_scheda=340.
Fig.4. Strozzi, Piero. Manuscript no.10, Florence, 1453. In The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J.R. Abbey, by J.J.G. Alexander and A.C. De la Mare. Frederick A. Praeger: London, 1969. 26
Fig.5. Spoleto, Johannes Petrus de. Manuscript no.11. In The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J.R. Abbey, by J.J.G. Alexander and A.C. De la Mare. Frederick A. Praeger: London, 1969. 27
Fig.6. Unknown. Manuscript no.14, Florence, 1460-1470. In The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J.R. Abbey, by J.J.G. Alexander and A.C. De la Mare. Frederick A. Praeger: London, 1969. 28
Fig.7. Unkown. The Irish Gospel Book of St. Gall. In the Library of the Monastery of St. Gallen in Switzerland, Codex 51. Source: St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 51 f. 7r. http://worldupclose.com/exec/page/105/The-Gospel-Book-of- St-Gall. 29
Fig.8. Angelico, Fra. Annonciation, 1430, Florence, San Marco Missal 558, fol. 33v. Museo di San Marco, Florence. http://www.wga.hu/html_m/a/angelico/14/2illumip. html. 30
Fig.9. Miscomini, Antonio di Bartolommeo. Plotinus and Marsilio Ficino, Florence, 1492. http://www.booktryst.com/2012/07/feast-of-late-15th-century-illuminated. html. 31
Fig.10. Morgiani, Lorenzo and Petri, Johannes, published by Pacini, Piero. Epistole et Evangelii, Florence, 1495. In Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress.
Fig.11. Morgiani, Lorenzo and Petri, Johannes, published by Pacini, Piero. Epistole et Evangelii, Florence, 1495. In Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress. 32
NOTES
1. David Diringer, The Illuminated Book, Its History And Production (New York: Philosophical Library, 1958)
2. Andrew Pettegree, The Book In The Renaissance (London: Yale University Press, 2011), 53.
3. Richard A. Goldthwaite, The Economy Of Renaissance Florence, (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011), 82.
4. Goldthwaite, 84.
5. William M. Ivins, Jr., “Early Florentine Illustrated Books,” The metropolitan Museum of Art, 20, JSTOR.
6. Ivins, 21. 7. Rhiannon Daniels, Boccacio and The Book Production and Reading in Italy 1340- 1520 (Great Britain: Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing: 2009), 32.
8. Pettegree, 51
9. John Henry Middleton, Illuminated manuscripts in Classical and Mediaeval Times, Their Art and Their Technique (Cambridge: At The University Press, 1892), 194.
10. Middleton, 195.
11. Fiorentino Vespasiano da Bisticci, The Vespasiano Memoirs. Lives of Illustrious Men of the XVth Century, Ed. by William George Waters and Emily Waters, (Canada: Renaissance Society of America, 1997), xiii. Accessed 1997. University of Toronto Press.
12. Angela Nuovo, “Private Libraries in Sixteen Century Italy” in Early Printed Books As Material Objects, Christine Beier, Producing, Buying And Decorating Books In The Age Of Gutenberg. The Role Of Monasteries In Central Europe, ed. Wagner, Bettina and Reed, Marcia (The Hague, The Netherlands: IFLA Publications, 2010), 237.
13. Nuovo, 230.
14. William F. Meehan III, The Importance of Cosimo de Medici in Library History (Indiana Libraries, Vol.26, no 3).
15. Goldthwaite, 83.
16. Francis Ames-Lewis, Library and manuscripts of Piero di Cosimo de’Medici (New York: Garland Pub.,1984), 222.
17. Ames-Lewis, 225.
18. Ames-Lewis, 227.
19. Ames-Lewis, 228. 33
20. Elizabeth L Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change (United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1979), 46.
21. Vespasiano, xiii.
22. David Bland, A History of Book Illustration, The Illuminated Manuscript and The Printed Book (Great Britain: University of California Press, 1969), 69.
23. Christopher De Hamel, A History of Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Phaidon Press, 1994), 242.
24. Jonathan James Graham Alexander, The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J.R.Abbey (NewYork: Praeger, 1969), xxvi. 25. Alexander, xxxiii.
26. Meehan
27. Brian Richardson, Printing, Writers and Readers in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge: The Press Syndicate of University of Cambridge, 1999), 42.
28. Alexander, 125.
29. Walter Bell Scaife, Florentine Life During The Renaissance (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1893), 111.
30. T.F. Dibdin, An Introduction to the Knowledge of rare and Valuable Editions of the Greek and Latin Classics, 2 vols. 4th edition, (London, 1827), 41.
31. Paul Kristeller, Early Florentine Woodcuts (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner &Co, Ltd., 1897), viii.
32. Kristeller, xi.
33. Kristeller, xiii.
34. Lilian Armstrong, “Venetian and Florentine renaissance Woodcuts for Bibles, Lithurgical Books, and Devotional Books” in A Heavenly Craft: The Woodcut in Early Printed Books: Illustrated Books Purchased by Lessing J. Rosenwald at the Sale of the Library of C.W. Dyson Perrins, ed. by Daniel De Simone, (Washington: Library of Congress, 2004), 29.
35. Alfred W. Pollard, Early Illustrated Books: A History Of The Decoration And Illustration Of Books In The 15th, 16th Centuries, (London, 1893), 115.
36. Pollard, 116.
37. Armstrong, 35.
38. Edward Gordon Duff, Early Printed Books (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner &Co, Ltd., 1893), 75.
39. Pollard, 134. 34
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ames-Lewis, Francis. Library and manuscripts of Piero di Cosimo de’Medici. New York: Garland Pub.,1984.
Alexander, Jonathan James Graham. The Italian Manuscripts in the Library of Major J.R.Abbey. NewYork: Praeger, 1969.
Armstrong, Lilian. “Venetian and Florentine renaissance Woodcuts for Bibles, Lithurgical Books, and Devotional Books.” In A Heavenly Craft: The Woodcut in Early Printed Books: Illustrated Books Purchased by Lessing J. Rosenwald at the Sale of the Library of C.W. Dyson Perrins, edited by Daniel De Simone. Washington: Library of Congress, 2004.
Bland, David. A History of Book Illustration, The Illuminated Manuscript and The Printed Book. Great Britain: University of California Press, 1969.
Daniels, Rhiannon. Boccacio and The Book Production and Reading in Italy 1340-1520. Great Britain: Modern Humanities Research Association and Maney Publishing: 2009.
De Hamel, Christopher. A History of Illuminated Manuscripts. London: Phaidon Press, 1994.
Diringer, David. The Illuminated Book, Its History And Production. New York: Philosophical Library, 1958.
Dibdin, T.F. An Introduction to the Knowledge of rare and Valuable Editions of the Greek and Latin Classics. 2 vols. 4th edition. London, 1827.
Duff, Edward Gordon. Early Printed Books. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner &Co, Ltd., 1893.
Eisenstein, Elizabeth L. The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
Ed. Finkelstein, David and McCleery, Alistair. The Book History Reader. London: Routledge, 2006.
Goldthwaite, Richard A. The Economy Of Renaissance Florence. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.
Hyett, Sir Francis Adams. Florence: Her History And Art To The Fall Of The Republic. London: Methuen & Co, 1903.
Ivins, William M. Jr. “Early Florentine Illustrated Books.” The metropolitan Museum of Art. JSTOR. Kristeller, Paul. Early Florentine Woodcuts. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner &Co, Ltd., 1897.
Martines, Laura. Fire In The City: Savonarola And The Struggle For The Soul Of Renaissance Florence. Oxford University, 2006.
Meehan III, William F. The Importance of Cosimo de Medici in Library History. Indiana 35
Libraries, Vol.26, no 3.
Middleton, John Henry. Illuminated manuscripts in Classical and Mediaeval Times, Their Art and Their Technique. Cambridge: At The University Press, 1892.
Nuovo, Angela. “Private Libraries in Sixteen Century Italy.” In Early Printed Books As Material Objects. Beier, Christine. Producing, Buying And Decorating Books In The Age Of Gutenberg. The Role Of Monasteries In Central Europe, edited by Bettina Wagner and Marcia Reed, 229-240. The Hague, The Netherlands: IFLA Publications, 2010. Accessed December 23, 2010. Walter de Gruyter.
Pettegree, Andrew. The Book In The Renaissance. London: Yale University Press, 2011.
Pollard, Alfred W. Early Illustrated Books: A History Of The Decoration And Illustration Of Books In The 15th, 16th Centuries. London, 1893.
Richardson, Brian. Printing, Writers and Readers in Renaissance Italy. Cambridge: The Press Syndicate of University of Cambridge, 1999. Accessed June 3, 2002. Cambridge University Press.
Scaife, Walter Bell. Florentine Life During The Renaissance. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1893.
Steinberg, S.H. Five Hundred Years of Printing. London: Oak Knoll Press, 2005.
Vespasiano da Bisticci, Fiorentino. The Vespasiano Memoirs. Lives of Illustrious Men of the XVth Century. Edited by William George Waters and Emily Waters. Canada: Renaissance Society of America, 1997. Accessed 1997. University of Toronto Press.