Federico da Montefeltro's Bible - The Impossible Library

Federico da Montefeltro's Bible, a supreme monument to the art of miniature, stands as the book in which the figurative culture of the Italian and European fifteenth century reaches its peak.

Produced when printing with movable type was already fully established, this Bible stands out from the usual typology of illuminated manuscripts both for its imposing size and for the number of pages, thirty-five of which are illustrated with miniatures that appear like true works of art. The Bible, destined to be the most beautiful manuscript in Federico da Montefeltro's library, was written by Ugo Comminelli da Mézières and decorated in Florence over the short span of two years (1477–1478) by Francesco di Antonio del Chierico, a miniaturist then at the height of his fame, magnanimously "lent" to the Duke of Urbino by Lorenzo de' Medici himself. Alongside Francesco are other illustrious names in the history of miniature painting, such as Attavante degli Attavanti, Francesco Rosselli, and most likely Davide Ghirlandaio, brother of the more famous Domenico.

Through the hands of these artists, the rich figurative heritage of fifteenth-century Florence filters and flows into the miniatures of the Bible, and it is not difficult, leafing through its miniatures, to recognize echoes of the greatest protagonists of the Tuscan Renaissance.

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