Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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I should say that I was hasty to attribute the lunette design to Michelino; it could be Bembo. I can't remember, in fact, which artist I had in mind when I noticed it. It is indeed plausible that Michelino influenced the Bembos; he was a legendary artist by then, well-travelled and well-connected, a painter on every scale.

I would like to consider the library decoration more, it was news to me as well.
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Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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Yes on Meiss. He went back to Durrieu. Here are some screen captures from the preview that Questia fortunately put up (bet they didn't think anyone could use that little bit so fruitfully!) -





I have corresponded with Margaret King, first way back in 2003, then again this year, while finishing up the book. I do, in fact, mention the T-word with her ;)

The current edition of the text and translation is intended mostly as a companion to Robert Place's Marziano Tarot. So I did it in pocket-sized format, with no notes or any scholarly apparatus at all. Well, some hints of erudition cannot be avoided, but it is pretty straightforward. It includes the three narrative sources on Marziano's life - Barzizza, Decembrio, and Marcello - but not the bureaucratic ones.

The scholarly treatment comes next.
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Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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Phaeded -
...so I'm not sure what explains complete ignorance of the deck - which clearly had "sixteen celestial princes and barons" and could not be the "Tarocchi" if by Michelino - other than disdain for tarot.
I think it is entirely due to the text not having been published in a journal they read. Although they know Meiss, if they are into Mantegna (and who isn't?), and King, if they are into certain currents of pre-Lodi politics, it is too much to expect that one of them would have sought out the Paris manuscript and done all the work to publish it.

It has fallen to me to do this, much like the 16th century Discorsi.
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Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: 27 Jul 2019, 11:10 Castelfranchi's fig. 7, p. 185, shows a Man of Sorrows attributed to Michelino from a manuscript of Livy, Vat. lat. 1854, f. 1r. I have used the colour image from the Vatican library website rather than her black and white illustration -
https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.lat.1854

She also might have compared it to this Michelino Man of Sorrows from the Castle in Pavia, which I was overjoyed to notice on my visit there in 2004, in a lunette over a door in the south wall of the ground-floor gallery -
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A seemingly related work in Torino, also basically in a lunette design - an undated arched panel(?) (this motif appears to be fairly standardized):

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The full book, La corte di Lodovico il Moro, la vita privata e l'arte a Milano nella seconda metà del quattrocento, scanned here: https://warburg.sas.ac.uk/pdf/cnf310b2955323v4.pdf

I think this has been posted here before, but regarding what looks like a very decent bibliography for all things Pavia (I believe entirely Italian of course) is at the bottom of this Musei Civici di Pavia webpage:
http://collezioni.museicivici.pavia.it/bvs/#11

This looks promising: M.G. Albertini Ottolenghi, La decorazione del Castello di Pavia dal 1366 alla fine del Quattrocento, in Storia di Pavia, Volume 3, Tomo III, Banca del Monte di Lombardia, Milano 1996, pp. 549-578

Phaeded

Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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This looks promising: M.G. Albertini Ottolenghi, La decorazione del Castello di Pavia dal 1366 alla fine del Quattrocento, in Storia di Pavia, Volume 3, Tomo III, Banca del Monte di Lombardia, Milano 1996, pp. 549-578
Indeed ! Too bad it isn't some 19th century study that we would likely find online. I'm so far from libraries that might have this (Montpellier and Toulouse are the two closest academic towns, and it is not guaranteed they would), and interlibrary loan fees add up, when you can get the books at all (train tickets are no cheaper, but it is nice to actually be IN a library and browse the stacks (that's what Harvard calls their shelving, anyway)).

Thinking about what has fallen to me in terms of early Tarot texts and playing cards in general, I have done some small things; but I think the main regret I have is not having all of the manuscripts for John of Rheinfelden. It is Arne Jönsson who has taken this up, and who knows where he is after two decades on this huge work. We can only hope he lives to complete it.
https://www.arlima.net/il/johannes_von_rheinfelden.html
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Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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I don't see it at the Newberry Library (and Worldcat gave me nothing), but there are other Pavia books I can check out there, namely the source used by Donati for Bembo: Codice diplomatico dell’ università di Pavia, raccolto ed ordinato dal Sac. Dott. Rodolfo Maiocchi

More accessible on Accademia.edu is this: La Lombardia complessa. Note sulla ricomposizione del ducato di Milano da parte di Filippo Maria Visconti (1412-1421) , which at least covers most of the Marziano period we are interested in:
https://www.academia.edu/19725554/La_Lo ... 1412-1421_

Found this pdf article on-line, that gives the Breventano quote in full: http://collezioni.museicivici.pavia.it/bvs/pdf/bvs.pdf
Nel mezzo dell’altro torrione il quale nello entrare resta a man sinistra è una camera la quale di
quadrata forma capisce la grandezza d’esso torrione et ha le finestre come fin hora si veggono
imbiancate di fuori, nella quale era una copiosa libraria et delle più belle che à que tempi si
potessero vedere in Italia, i cui libri erano tutti di carta pecorina scritti a mano con bellissimi
caratteri, et miniati, i quali trattavano di tutte le facoltà letterali sì di leggi come di Theologia,
Filosofia, Astrologia, Medicina, Musica, Geometria, Retorica, Istorie et d’altre scientie, et erano di
numero novecento e cinquanta et uno volume, come è notato in un Repertorio scritto in carta pecora,
il quale è appresso di me, e detti libri erano coperti chi di velluto, chi di damasco o raso et chi di
brocato d’oro o d’ariento con le lor chiavette et catenelle d’ariento con le quali stavano fermati alli
panchi, i quali erano posti con quell’ordine et modo con che sono quelli delle Scuole pubbliche ma
però fatti più belli come richiedeva il luogo et il grado di chi gli haveva fatti fare, ivi era ancora un
corno di Liocorno lungo quasi un braccio il quale si mostrava per cosa rara et singolare. Il
pavimento di questa stanza è fatto a quadretti di diversi colori come fussero vitriati.


In the middle of the other tower which, when entering, remains on the left is a room which of
square shape understands the greatness of this tower and has the windows as they see it now
whitewashed outside, in which it was a copious library and one of the most beautiful that this is
they could see in Italy, whose books were all made of beautiful hand-written sheep's paper
characters, and miniated, which dealt with all the literal faculties of laws as well as of Theologia,
Philosophy, Astrology, Medicine, Music, Geometry, Rhetoric, History and other sciences, and were of
number nine hundred and fifty and one volume, as noted in a Repertoire written in sheep's paper,
which is next to me, and those books were covered with velvet, those of damask or satin et chi di
brocato d''oro or d'orento with their keys and chain stitches with which they were stopped alli
benches, which were placed with that order and how they are those of the public schools but
but more beautiful facts as required by the place and degree of those who had made them do, there was still one
unicorn horn along almost one arm which was shown for rare and singular thing. The
The floor of this room is made of squares of different colors as were vines.
Really nothing to see here with Breventano. I can't believe he is the basis for understanding a fresco theme.

I'd forgotten about the astronomical clock also housed in the library - the next section describes that: L’astrario di Giovanni Dondi di Andrea Albini.

Most of the rest is unfortunately about the usual interest in the inventories and dispersal of the books.

Re: What are the documents for Marziano's dates?

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Ross G. R. Caldwell wrote: 27 Jul 2019, 18:55
This looks promising: M.G. Albertini Ottolenghi, La decorazione del Castello di Pavia dal 1366 alla fine del Quattrocento, in Storia di Pavia, Volume 3, Tomo III, Banca del Monte di Lombardia, Milano 1996, pp. 549-578
Indeed ! Too bad it isn't some 19th century study that we would likely find online. I'm so far from libraries that might have this (Montpellier and Toulouse are the two closest academic towns, and it is not guaranteed they would)...
You're only 440 klicks away from Lausanne! ;-) Not even in the US....
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I cannot even find our author to bug her for the relevant details - but there is already festshrift out there for her: Studi in onore di Maria Grazia Albertini Ottolenghi. That's unfortunate because older scholars usually do not load their papers to Accademia.edu and she is likely retired and not searchable via a university directory. Bummer.
Last edited by Phaeded on 27 Jul 2019, 19:36, edited 1 time in total.