The Sforza Grammar - Treccani - Franco Cosimo Panini

THE IMPOSSIBLE LIBRARY The Sforza Grammar is part of the "La Biblioteca Impossibile" series, the most authoritative and valuable collection of facsimiles dedicated to the Renaissance. This unique project, inaugurated in 1995 with the Borso d'Este Bible, has continued year after year with the reproduction of the greatest works of illumination. The Sforza Grammar is the fifteenth code.

The Donato Grammatica and the Liber Iesus were purchased in the 18th century by the great collector and scholar Don Carlo Trivulzio. The two Sforza codices thus joined the rich book collection that the Trivulzio family, an ancient Milanese family, had begun to assemble starting in the 15th century. In 1935, the City of Milan acquired the entire Trivulzio collection: the over 1,500 volumes in the collection—manuscripts, incunabula, sixteenth-century editions, and early and modern printed books—thus formed the Trivulziana Library. The Grammatica and the Liber Iesus were then moved to their new home, at the Sforza Castle. It was then, shortly before the move, that one of the most important folios of the Grammatica—folio 3, with the title page of the work illuminated by Ambrogio de Predis—disappeared forever, perhaps stolen by unknown perpetrators.

One of the facsimile's most interesting features is the reintegration of folio 3 of the Grammar, which was lost between 1913 and 1935: on the recto was a full-page miniature by Ambrogio de Predis, on the verso the incipit of the text richly decorated by Giovan Pietro Birago. Thanks to an old black-and-white photograph of the folio and detailed descriptions from historical inventories—which indicate the various colors present—Franco Cosimo Panini Editore was able to reconstruct the presumed original appearance of the decoration. After a careful study of the two illuminators' painting techniques and a comparison with the decorative elements of the codex, the chromatic and tonal values ​​of each part of the folio were identified. Following this outline, an expert miniaturist reproduced the color scheme, using tools and materials consistent with those used in the 15th century (finely ground mineral, vegetable, and animal pigments mixed with gum arabic and ox gall to improve adhesion to the parchment support). The facsimile, complete with the lost page, thus allows us to admire and browse the splendid codex as it appeared to the eyes of the young Massimiliano Sforza.

The transaction takes place with maximum security for both the seller and the buyer. We take care of the conformity (provenance, authenticity, state of conservation) of the work and handle the shipping.
Returns are possible no later than 14 days after receiving the order.