La sfera

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
Century: 
Classification: