"De li prati et de' quilli che facessero damagio in ipsy".

Illumination, double f., 30 x 20 cm, on vellum, gold leaf, pen and black and red ink, text in humanist font (sm. prick holes in middle from orig. binding).

Placed in mod. gilt lettered red leather folder.

A double folio from an Italian manuscript with juridical texts written by Bartolomeo di Capua (1248-1328), who served as lawyer and juridical advisor at the court of Frederick III of Sicily and Naples, and subsequently at the court of Charles d'Anjou. In this function he also went on diplomatic missions to France, Italy and Spain. The front is richly decorated with a gilt initial "B", illuminated in the Italian "white-vine stem-style" (Bianchi girari), a motif which originated in fifteenth-century Florence and spread northward throughout Europe, accompanying mostly humanistic or classical texts. White vine-stem borders were conscious emulations of what were thought to be antique manuscripts but were in fact Italian manuscripts of the twelfth century. The lower border of the front. contains the coat of arms of Bartolomeo di Capua and his wife, held up by two putti. The illuminations have been attributed by Prof. Dr. Gennaro Toscano (BnF, Université de Lille) to the Neapolitan illuminator Matteo Felice, a well-known artist who was active in Naples between 1467 and 1493 and received many commissions from Neapolitan and Aragonese families.
Prov. Bartolomeo di Capua (coat of arms).