Accession number:
MS M.721
Title:
La sfera
Created:
Italy, probably Florence, second half of 15th century.
Binding:
Limp Italian vellum with two ties.
Description:
24 leaves (1 column, 24 lines), bound : vellum, ill. ; 280 x 200 mm
Provenance:
Erased arms of first owner (per pale indented or and azure, the latter charged with three mullets or); purchased in Nov. 1908 by George Dunn (inscription on flyleaf); his sale (London, Sotheby's, Feb. 11-15, 1913, lot 455) to Quaritch; purchased from Voynich, Jun. 29, 1927.
Notes:
Ms. verse; written and illuminated in Tuscany, Italy, probably in Florence, in the second half of the 15th century.
Text: 124 rhymed stanzas of 8 lines each.
Astronomical-geographic poemetto in ottave; gives information about the world, the marinaresche compass and other things, adding observations, notes about travel and designs.
Decoration: 20 marginal illustrations (colored wash drawings of maps and celestial spheres); 1 white-vine illuminated initial.
The illumination of M.721 is unfinished. The map of Crimea on fol. 24v was not completed.
Script:
humanistic script
Language:
Italian, the Tuscan dialect
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