Full description (PDF) - Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG

DR. JÖRN GÜNTHER · RARE BOOKS AG
1
Manuskripte und seltene Bücher
Three nobili and a notary from the Fornari family
Full-page miniature from a family chronicle on vellum of the Genoese Fornari family,
probably illuminated by Andrea Semino (c. 1526 – 1594)
Italy, Genoa, after 1553.
513 x 360 mm. A full-page miniature surrounded by a richly ornamented full border. Tempera on
vellum. Old foliation in brown ink in the upper left corner: ‘6’; on the verso the number ‘191‘ in
pencil. Text written in red ink in capital script, allocated to the several image fields. Minor flaking of
colour and repair in the background, otherwise in an excellent state of preservation.
PROVENANCE
1. The four single leaves, to which the item at hand belongs (see companion leaves),
unquestionably originate in one manuscript, which can be identified as a chronicle of the
Genoese Fornari family, commissioned by a family member in the sixteenth century. The
Fornari family is documented in Genoa since the twelfth century. During the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries it provided several consuls and was later involved in the municipal
government constituted of the podestà and the nobili. During the sixteenth century the Fornari
family was still actively engaged in politics. Like the Doria family or the Spinola family the
Fornaris played an important part in the history of Genoa. Genealogical chronicles were very
Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG · Mosboden 1 · 6063 Stalden · Schweiz
Office: Spalenberg 55 · 4051 Basel · Fon +41 61 275 7575 · Fax +41 61 275 7576
[email protected] · www.guenther-rarebooks.com
DR. JÖRN GÜNTHER · RARE BOOKS AG
2
Manuskripte und seltene Bücher
popular in the sixteenth century; a number of specimens dating from this time are handed
down, for instance the codex on the history of the Freschi family in the Biblioteca Maricana
in Venice (It. VII. 165) or the manuscript documenting the family history of the Medici in
Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (Med. Pal. 225).
2. Stefano Bardini (1836-1922), Florence (see E. Fahy, L’Archivo storico fotografico di
Stefano Bardini, Florence 2000, fig. 692-693).
3. Sotheby’s London, 13 July 1908, lot 105. At that time the leaves were bound in a red
morocco binding and apart from the miniatures in question here the fragment included a
double-page with a family tree of the Fornari family and two further miniatures arranged in
four compartments rendering four persons each, among them Otto Fornarius in the year 1105.
The date suggests that these two leaves, the whereabouts of which are unknown today, were
the first two leaves within the chronicle, numbered as “1” and “2”.
4. Private collection, Switzerland.
COMPANION LEAVES
1. Dondedeo Bos Fornari with the relic of the
Holy Cross in front of the Cathedral of
Genoa (515 x 352 mm). Old foliation in
brown ink in the upper left corner: ‘3’; on the
verso the number ‘190’ in pencil. Dr. Jörn
Günther Rare Books, Switzerland.
2. The consul Lamberto Fornari appointing
the pirate Alamanno count (513 x 356 mm).
Old foliation in brown ink in the upper left
corner: ‘4’. Private collection Switzerland.
3. Lamberto Fornari in front of the panorama
of the harbour of Genoa (512 x 360 mm).
Old foliation in brown ink in the upper left
corner :‘5’. Private collection Switzerland.
TEXT:
Gulielmus Fornarius an/no 1226 unus ex
octo / nobilib(us) civitatis una cum potestate.
Ugo Fornarius a(n)no 1237 / unus ex octo
nobili-bus / civitatis una cum potestate.
Ugo Fornarius anno 1246 / unus ex octo
nobilibus / civitatis una cum / potestate.
Bartholomeus Fornarius / anno 1248 alter ex
/ iudicibus causarum / forentium.
Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG · Mosboden 1 · 6063 Stalden · Schweiz
Office: Spalenberg 55 · 4051 Basel · Fon +41 61 275 7575 · Fax +41 61 275 7576
[email protected] · www.guenther-rarebooks.com
DR. JÖRN GÜNTHER · RARE BOOKS AG
3
Manuskripte und seltene Bücher
ILLUMINATION
The four members of the Fornari
family: Guglielmo, Ugo, a second Ugo
and Bartolomeo are depicted in
separate compartments, each in front
of an architectural scene with a view
onto a landscape and the sky. They are
dressed in ankle-length girded coats
with fur trimming and wear the black
caps customarily attributed to
scholars. The two men depicted in the
upper compartments (Guglielmo and
Ugo) have glasses and hold scrolled
documents in their hands; one is
wearing his spectacles on his nose,
and the other one is holding them in
his right hand. Of the two figures in
the lower compartments only the right
one, Bartolomeo, holds a document in
his hand, whereas the man in the left
compartment, the second Ugo, is
grasping a stick in his left hand. All
four representatives of the Fornari
family are recorded with the dates
given in the inscriptions underneath
the images in the Annali genovesi by Caffaro and his followers. In addition it follows from the
Codice diplomatico that Guglielmo and Ugo were brothers. Whether the Ugo provided with
the date 1246 is to be identified with the Ugo to whom the date 1237 is assigned, cannot be
ascertained. It is more likely, however, that two different family members are portrayed here.
While Genoa had a city council with elected consuls in the twelfth and early thirteenth
centuries, the town was governed as of 1217 by the body of the Podestariato, which was
composed of a Podestà and eight nobili, who were above all in charge of the finances.
Guglielmo and the two Ugos were such nobili, while Bartolomeo Fornari was known as
notary.
The full border is composed of four ornamental bars, framing an inner image field, which
itself is subdivided in vertical and horizontal direction by two ornamental bars into four
compartments. Circular medallions are placed in the centres of all ornamental bars: in the
medallion incorporated in the lower bar the risen Christ is depicted; the upper bar includes a
medallion with the Ascension of Christ. The decoration corresponds in a slightly modified
form to the design of the border of the first leaf.
The miniatures have been tentatively attributed by Dr. Di Fabio to the circle of the Calvi or
more precisely to Andrea Semino (c. 1526–1594). In 1559, near in the time where the
miniatures were executed, the artist painted a fresco in the Palazzo of Gerolamo de Fornari in
Genoa. Member of the Semino family who belonged to the most well-known fresco painters
Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG · Mosboden 1 · 6063 Stalden · Schweiz
Office: Spalenberg 55 · 4051 Basel · Fon +41 61 275 7575 · Fax +41 61 275 7576
[email protected] · www.guenther-rarebooks.com
DR. JÖRN GÜNTHER · RARE BOOKS AG
4
Manuskripte und seltene Bücher
in Genova at that time, he might have also done book illumination (see the attribution of a
Virgin Mary with the Christ child in the Galleria di Palazzo Bianco in Genoa – C. Di Fabio,
Gio. Battista Castello “il Genovese”. Miniatura e devozione a Genova fra Cinque e Seicento,
catalogo della mostra, Genoa 1990). Apart from the high artistic quality of the painting the
significance of these illuminated leaves is therefore widely defined by their references to the
municipal and cultural heritage of Genoa.
LITERATURE ON THE FORNARI FAMILY
Giovanni Battista Di Crollalanza, Dizionario storico-blasonico delle famiglie nobili e notabili
italiane estinte e fiorenti, 3 vols. Pisa 1886-1890, here vol. 1, 1886, p. 99.
Antonio Cappellini, Dizionario biografico di genovesi illustri e notabili. Bologna 1941, p.
380 (cf. Archivio biografico italiano I 423, 12; II 248, 180).
On the history of Genoa:
Codice diplomatico della Repubblica di Genova dal MCLXIII al MCLXXXX, ed. by Cesare
Imperiale di Sant’Angelo. In: Fonti per la storia d’Italia, vol. 89. Rome 1942.
Jacopo da Voragine, Cronaca di Genova dalle origini al MCCXCVII, ed. by Giovanni
Monleone. In: Fonti per la storia d’Italia, vol. 84. Rome 1969.
Annali genovesi di Caffaro e de’ suoi continuatori dal MCLXXIV al MCCXXIV, ed. by Luigi
Tommaso Belgrano and Cesare d’Imperiale di Sant’Angelo. In: Fonti per la storia d’Italia,
vol. 12. Rome 1929.
Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG · Mosboden 1 · 6063 Stalden · Schweiz
Office: Spalenberg 55 · 4051 Basel · Fon +41 61 275 7575 · Fax +41 61 275 7576
[email protected] · www.guenther-rarebooks.com

Download Report