Cartulary of San Zeno

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Description: 

Cartulary of San Zeno

Italian (Verona), after 1533

ink and gold on parchment

University of Oregon Library, Ms 30

 

Diebold, William. The Illustrated Book in the Age of Printing: Books and Manuscripts from Oregon Collections. Portland, OR: Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, 1993, pp. 6-7 - Quoted with permission

This manuscript seems to have made more than a century after Gutenberg. Its luxury and the high quality of its decoration indicate that the new technology did not immediately end the production of illuminated manuscripts. Indeed, this book was probably executed by hand in part because printing had, by the sixteenth century, made the manuscript a desirable luxury.

This book's high status is indicated by the coat of arms in the bottom border, which belong to Bernardo Navagero, bishop of Verona and Venetian legate to the Council of Trent. The red hat and tassels above the coat of arms indicate that Navagero was a cardinal. If these arms are original, they provide crucial evidence for dating the manuscript, since Navagero only became a cardinal in 1561 and died in 1565 (it is possible, that the red cardinal's hat was added long after the other decoration of the manuscript was completed. The book must date after 1533, however, for it contains a charter written in that year). Further indications of the book's luxury are the lavish amounts of gold employed in the decoration and the use of parchment rather than paper as a support.

Protocol: 
University of Oregon - Public Access
Community: 
University of Oregon
Category: 
Manuscripts and Manuscript Illuminations
Rights: 
Image reproduced with permission from University of Oregon Library. The institutions that house the specific Medieval Portland objects ultimately hold the rights to their image and reproduction; the images are provided here as a courtesy by those institutions and are for non-profit, educational use only.