Beinecke MS 372               Italy, 1620
Valerio Mariani, Della miniatura, etc.

Pocket-size codex containing discussions, in Italian, of painting
miniatures in manuscripts.

1.  f. 1r [Title-page:] Della miniatura del Sig^^r Valerio Mariani da Pesaro
Miniatore del Duca d'Vrbino con aggiunta d'altre cose per l'istessa professione
hauuta dal S^^r D. Antonello Bertozzi scrittore e miniatore in Padoa per me
Francesco Manlio Romano l'anno MDCXX.  f. 1v blank

2.  ff. 2r-4v Tavola di quanto in questa opera si contiene.  1. Azurro
oltramarino et Biadetto.  4.  Verdetto e Verde Azurro...84.  Diuersi habiti.
94.  Diuerse carnagioni.  Color de fiori diuersi.

     Table of contents for art. 3, incomplete, for it does not list most of the
sections on ff. 84r-95r.

3.  ff. 1r-95v (contemporary foliation)  [Heading:]  Azurro Oltamarino
[sic] et Biadetto.  [text:]  L'Azurro oltramarino e pretiosissimo colore
tanto per la sua immutabile bellezza quanto anco perche...[ends on f. 82v in
section with title:  Viole saluatiche et altri fiori di simil colore et altro
colore:] si ritoccano con cinabro e lacca insieme.  [f. 83r-v blank; text
continues on f. 84r:]  Veste d'Azurro oltramarino.  In doi modi si puo fare
l'una con l'azurro schietto dando con l'istesso azurro...in carta et altre cose
gentili.

     A treatise on painting miniatures, entitled Della miniatura, consisting
of two parts.  Folios 1r-82v appear to be the work of Valerio Mariani (fl.
1560-1620:  U. Thieme and F. Becker, eds., Kuenstler Lexicon, v. 24,
p. 94). On ff. 1r-30v Mariani provides a list of colors and the recipes for each color;
in the remainder of the text he discusses techniques for painting landscapes in
perspective.  E. Jayne (in an unpublished paper) indicates that Mariani has
quoted two chapters from the Sulla materia medica of Dioscurides, a work
which had been translated into Italian by Pietro Andrea Matthioli and published
in Venice in 1557.  The second portion of the treatise (ff. 84r-95v) is,
according to the title-page, the work of Antonello Bertozzi (fl. ca. 1590; P.
Zani, Enciclopedia metodica critico-ragionata delle belle arti [Parma, 1820]
v. 4, p. 16).  The focus of this section is on painting watercolor portraits
rather than on painting landscapes. According to E. Hermens an imperfect manuscript
copy of this treatise also appears in Leiden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit,
Vossius Germanici Gallici 5 q.

4.  ff. 95v-97r Four short passages:  Macinar argento per perle false, Per far
che un archibuso facci passata grande, Altro modo bello, Per tirare ad una
quantita d'uccelletti.

5.  ff. 97v-113v Additions in at least 3 hands, dated 1612-1627, containing:
technical recipes (for rock alum to size paper and parchment; "a levare l'orto
al fumo di rasso [?]"; for aqua fortis to engrave on copper; for an "amalgam"
and for a salt, both verified by a G. B. M^^ti.; for a "bianco perfetto"; for a
wash to size paper before painting; for lead for a pencil); lists (of 9 place
names in Venice; of minerals with their days of the week and the astrological
symbols of said minerals and days; of degrees of the cardinal directions under
columns headed Ro[ma] and Ve[nezia] with a note of the distance between the 2
Venetian quarters of Marghera and the Fondamenta di Lizza Fusina; of the 13
books on geometry and arithmetic, some designated as manuscript, given to one
Giovanni Battista Brugiatti in Rome to send to Venice; of the accounts done
with Giovanni Battista Costanti, majordomo of Pope Paul V, regarding various
buildings in Rome and in Ferrara), and personal notes (an undeciphered word
square with Latin and Hebrew script; an inscription in Hebrew characters; the
plan of a room in Venice; the date of an event reckoned according to the
"uso veneto"; the recording of the writer's first tonsure in Rome).  ff. 98v-99r
blank

     Paper, ff. i (paper) + 118 (contemporary foliation for arts. 3-5, beginning
on present f. 5:  1-113, 41 bis) + i
(paper), 129 x 82 (98 x 59) mm.  Ca. 19 long lines; frame-ruled in ink, with
additional interior rulings to form a rectangle of parallel lines for written
space.
     I^^6 (+ 1 leaf added at end), II-XIV^^8, XV^^8 (-8).  Catchwords in lower right
corner of written space, every page.
     Written in upright humanistic bookhand for arts. 1 and 2 and for the headings
in art. 3.  Main text in a gently sloping italic script.  Additions on ff.
95v-113v by several hands, some very cursive and poorly formed.
     Simple headpieces, in brown pen, for beginning of some chapters.
     Binding:  s. xviii-xix.  Rigid vellum case with a gold-tooled spine:
"Mariani Della Miniatur [sic]."

Written in Italy in 1620 by Francesco Manlio Romano (who remains unidentified,
see art. 1), according to the title-page; both script and page layout are much
influenced by printing.  Inscriptions, s. xix, front flyleaf, recto:  1) "My
Tutor gave me this in 4. March 1821 - he says it is 201 yr old."  2) "Given
me by my Tutor 4^^th March 1821 - 200 yr. old."  3) "Given to John N. Chaster
by his affectionate Mother Susanna on the 31^^st July 1870/ Signed Susanna
Chaster July 31^^st 1870."  Signatures of John N. Chaster on front pastedown
and twice on final flyleaf, verso.  Notation, in pencil, on front pastedown:
"Il L/ 248".  Bought from the English dealer R. C. Hatchwell in 1958
by H. P. Kraus (Cat. 95, no. 25) from whom it was purchased in 1965 as the
gift of Edwin J. and Frederick W. Beinecke.

Barbara A. Shailor