Beyond Words

BY Anne-Marie Eze

5 MIN READ

At the dawn of the fifteenth century, a new kind of manuscript debuted in Florence. It looked completely different from books in use elsewhere in Italy and Europe.

Unique in its script, decoration, and layout, the so-called all’antica manuscript owed its distinct appearance to the efforts of a small circle of humanists led by Florence’s learned chancellor Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406). Humanists were followers of a new literary movement inspired by the visionary poet Francesco Petrarch (1304-74), who believed that Italy could enjoy a new golden age by reviving the refined and civilized Latin of the Roman Empire (cat. no. 215). To recover the written heritage of their ancient ancestors, Salutati encouraged Poggio Bracciolini (1381-1459) and others to search monastery and cathedral libraries throughout Europe for neglected classical texts to copy, study and imitate in their own writings.

Feeling that beauty of language should be matched by beauty of form, another Salutati protege Niccolo Niccoli (1364- 1437) devised a complementary script called littera antiqua with which to transcribe the rediscovered antique works. Breaking with the Gothic manuscript tradition of the previous two centuries, Niccoli modeled his letterforms on the rounded minuscules in the volumes of classical and patristic authors found by his friends, which he admired for their legibility and venerable age. These books, however, did not date from antiquity, but were Romanesque copies from the 1100s (cat. no. 195). Adopting other features from these pre-Gothic codices, the early Florentine humanists laid out texts in a single column of long lines framed by superbly proportioned wide margins. They titled works entirely in capital letters, and decorated initials with a Romanesque motif called bianchi girari, comprising stylized entwined vine stems left white against a multicolored ground (cat. no. 194). Intended for use in the humanists study or to be treasured by cultivated bibliophiles, the all’antica book assumed a new format which added to its distinct character. As a medium to small-sized folio or quarto with finely prepared parchment leaves, it was lighter and more refined than contemporary scholastic codices. By around 1410, the early Florentine humanists’ experiments with book design were complete and all of the features that became the hallmarks of the all’antica book had been established. The first texts copied in the new style were predominantly classical Latin authors (cat. nos. 208-10) and the church fathers (cat. no. 197). Greek works in Latin translation followed (cat. nos. 194, 211-13). Finally, the writings of the humanists themselves and of the “three Florentine crowns” Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Petrarch, and Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75), whose works had achieved a status similar to that of the classics (cat. nos. 196, 214-18) were added. An early admirer and collector of these manuscripts was Florence's erudite ruler Cosimo de’ Medici (1389-1464) (cat. no. 194). His stamp of approval greatly contributed to the Florentine humanist book’s swift and widespread success. Within twenty years, littera antiqua script and bianchi girari decoration became commonplace in manuscripts throughout Italy, fusing with existing styles to produce local variants.

By the 1440s Florentine illuminators, most notably Filippo diMatteo Torelli (1408/10-68), created new embellishments to inject an antique flavor into humanist manuscripts and further enhance their prestige. They framed frontispieces titled in painted gold letters with full- or three-sided white vine-stem borders, which they populated with naturalistic flora and fauna, and gold discs derived from Gothic manuscripts, as well as with new motifs drawn from classical art, especially sculpture and coins. Nude infant boys, called putti, frolicked among the vines and supported laurel wreaths containing the coat of arms of the book’s owner (cat. nos. 196-97). Idealized portraits of revered ancient and humanist writers proclaim their authorship of a book’s contents (cat. nos. 208-9, 212-14). From the 1460s all'antica manuscripts acquired classicizing title pages solely occupied by an elaborate clipeus (or roundel) enclosing the title or description of the work, and the name of the author and/or translator, written in splendid chrysographic capital letters (cat. no. 197, see opposite). Many of these stylistic developments were driven by the Florentine bookseller Vespasiano da Bisticci (1421-98), who attained great success and fame through commercializing the humanist book, and disseminating it throughout Italy and beyond. He employed scribes and artists to produce manuscripts of bestselling classical and humanist texts in the Florentine style for speculative visitors to his shop in Florence (cat. no. 212), while also supplying bespoke, deluxe volumes to the libraries ofprinces of the church and state around Europe (cat. no. 196). With a mix of shrewdness and charm, Vespasiano transformed the all’antica manuscript, originally the product of a recherche Florentine cottage industry, into a lucrative international phenomenon.

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