www.medievalbookshop.co.uk
Bargain books on the Middle Ages and all related subjects
Contact by email or post & phone
Mark Evans.
The Sforza Hours.
London: The British Library, 1992.
ISBN 0712302689;
ISBN-13: 9780712302685.
Paperback, stitch bound.
219x275x4mm.
64pp inc. 87 illustrations, colour and monochrome.
English.
Unused bargain.This item £3.50
295g.
The Sforza Hours is one of the finest surviving Renaissance illuminated manuscripts and has a fascinating history. Its lavish illustrations were painted in two campaigns, the first in around 1490 for Bona of Savoy, widow of Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan. Her miniaturist Giovan Pietro Birago had completed and delivered part of the book when a substantial part of the remainder was stolen, never to be returned. Thirty years later, in 1517-20, Bona's heir Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands, commissioned a Flemish painter Gerard Horenbout to execute sixteen additional miniatures to complement Birago's. Thus what had been begun as a masterpiece of the Milanese late Quattrocento was completed in the vanguard of the Northern Renaissance. Appropriately, it probably served as a gift for Margaret's nephew, the Emperor Charles V.
The manuscript is outstanding for its rich decorative scheme and an unusually high number of its text pages have minutely detailed borders, initials and vignettes in deep blues, greens and rich reds, to match the many full-page miniatures.
Related pages on this site: | illuminated manuscripts |
See the "book descriptions" page for explanations of the criteria used in this listing.
Return to used books index page
Use these scrollbars to navigate the attic...
You need javascript switched on for these scrollbars to work. If they don't, there's a full set of links at the bottom of this page.
Primary sources anthologies | anononymous | facsimile | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Secondary sources journals & partworks | author unknown | exhibition guides & ephemera | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | Mc | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Reference books Reference index | general reference | bibliographies | biographical dictionaries | catalogues: auctions | catalogues: exhibitions | catalogues: museums & collections | chronology & dating | genealogy & heraldry | guides & gazetteers | lexical: concordances, dictionaries, glossaries | maps & atlases | medievalism | name & place-name studies | pass notes & study guides | numismatics
Medievalism main page | general non-fiction | reference books | biography & autobiography | travelogues | arcana | folklore | arts and crafts | kid's books | fiction | poetry | drama | humour
Other stuff browse by subject | browse by publisher | browse by series | gift books | kids' stuff | incomplete sets | shop returns | signed copies | unused bargains | useful non-medieval | new books (with Amazon links)
Site search
(Fluid Dynamics)
medievalbookshop
Other frequently asked questions
Books
How to find what you're looking for
How the book descriptions work
Information pages
The small print