Other works of the fourteenth century are enthusiastically praised by
Italian writers, as, _e.g._, those of Don Silvestro, a Camaldolese monk,
who flourished at the same time as the illuminator of this MS. of Louis
of Taranto, and who worked on the great choir books of the Monastery
"degli angeli," in Florence, so loudly commended by Vasari and others
who had seen them. They have long been broken up and dispersed, and it
is not improbable that cuttings from them were among those bought by
Ottley, Rogers, and other amateurs. A fragment of an Antiphonary of
Nocturnal Services, now in the Laurentian Library at Florence, finished
in 1370, shows the style of work to be of the kind just described. Other
great choir books of the earlier period are preserved in the Academy at
Pisa. But the number of MSS. to which reference might be made is legion.
Those of this date are chiefly civil law books; next to these come the
canon law, and divinity. Among the intermediate class are the copies of
the Rationale of Durandus, one of these being in the British Museum
(Add. 31032). Now and then a fine Missal, like the "Stefaneschi," or the
Munich Missal of 1374, which may be referred to as being one of the
models of the school of Prag. On the whole, perhaps, the law books are
more numerous than liturgical ones, and are referable generally to
Bologna or Padua. The name of Nicholaus of Bologna occurs more than once
in these books. A book of offices of the Virgin, by Nicholaus, is now at
Kremsmünster, and a New Testament, dated 1328, in the Vatican. Tommaso
di Modena, another distinguished Italian illuminator, also had much to
do with altering the style of the artists who worked for Charles IV. at
Prag. Some of his work, or work presumed to be his, is still to be seen
in the Bohemian capital. Next to these Bolognese MSS. we may place those
of Florence--copies of the Divina Commedia and the Triumphs and Sonnets
of Petrarch, which, with historians and copies or translations of the
classics, chiefly occupied the illuminators of Florence and Siena, with
one notable exception. Whoever has visited any of the North Italian
cities cannot fail to have noticed and admired the magnificent
choir-books still to be seen in the cathedrals and cathedral libraries.
At Siena the Piccolomini service-books are truly splendid; those in San
Marco, the Riccardi, the Laurentian, and other collections in Florence,
are no less admirable. Verona's best work is chiefly elsewhere, at
Florence, Siena, etc. At Milan the Brera Graduals--each of them a man's
load to carry--are simply gorgeous in the lavish richness of their
letters, miniatures, and decorations. Venice, again, has another grand
collection of MSS. of the highest class in her Attavantes and Gerard
Davids; Rome, in a crowd of princely libraries, has multitudes--literally
multitudes--of exquisitely illuminated volumes. Naples also has some
noble examples of the great craftsmen. We have not yet mentioned the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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