Francesco Marmitta (c.1460-1505)

Francesco Marmitta (c.1460-1505)
The Dall'Armi Hours, use of Rome, in Latin and Italian, illuminated manuscript on vellum [Bologna, c.1490s (after 1492)]
A lavish and highly individual testament to the rich Bolognese collaboration between the great painter and jeweller Francesco Marmitta and the prolific scribe Pierantonio Sallando da Reggio: a jewel-like Hours produced for a member of the Dall’Armi family of Bologna.

110 x 74mm. iii + 254 + leaves, complete, collation: 110+1 (i an inserted singleton), 2-910, 1012+1 (xi an inserted singleton), 114, 1210+1 (i an inserted singleton), 13-2110, 2210+1 (ix an inserted singleton), 236, 2412, 254, 2612, catchwords survive, 12 lines written in a Renaissance humanistic script by Pierantonio Sallando da Reggio, ruled space: 55 x 36mm, rubrics in blue or gold, c.200 illuminated initials throughout, often beside panels of jewelled and floral designs and all with floral and arabesque borders, one large epigraphic initial within a full jewelled border, 12 large historiated initials and 4 full-page miniatures within full Renaissance borders (some outer margins lightly damp-stained affecting illumination in some places, cropping to the upper margins of some of the miniatures, calendar misbound at the end). Early 18th-century brown morocco gilt (lacking clasps). Red slipcase and quarter-morocco box, gilt title on spine.

Content:
Hours of the Virgin, use of Rome, ff.2-101:matins f.2, lauds f.19, prime f.37, terce f.43v, sext f.49, none f.54, vespers f.59, compline f.70; Mass of the Virgin ff.101v-106v; blanks ff.107-8; Seven Penitential Psalms and Litany ff.110-142v; Office of the Dead, use of Rome, ff.143-211v; Hours of the Cross ff.212-217; Hours of the Holy Ghost ff.219-223v; blanks ff.224-6; prayers in Italian and Latin ff.227-241; blank f.242; Calendar ff.243-254v.

Script:
The script is attributable to the distinguished scribe Pierantonio Sallando da Reggio, who worked in Bologna for Giovanni II Bentivoglio and other patrons from 1489 until his death in c.1540 (see M. Medica, 'La miniatura a Bologna al tempo di Giovanni II Bentivoglio', Il Libro d'Ore di Bonaparte Ghislieri, 2008, pp.44-61). He was a reader at the Studium of Bologna, first of grammar and later of ars scribendi. James Wardrop was the first to identify the initials ‘P. Ant. Sal.’ on f.196v of a De re aedificatoria now at the Vatican Library (Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Urb.lat.264) with the calligrapher Pierantonio Sallando (see J. Wardrop, ‘Pierantonio Sallando and Girolamo Pagliarolo, scribes to Giovanni Il Bentivoglio’, 1946, pp.4-30). Albinia de la Mare, however, questioned this attribution in unpublished manuscript notes now kept in the manuscripts Department of the Bodleian Library of Oxford, suggesting instead that the initials be read as ‘presbiter Antonius de Salla’ (on distinguishing Pierantonio Sallando from Antonio da Salla, see L. Nuvoloni, ‘Pier Antonio Sallando o “il più excellente scriptore credo habia il mondo”, Il libro d’Ore Durazzo, Modena, 2008, pp.145-188). Nuvoloni lists 4 signed codices by Pier Antonio Sallando (a De re culinaria, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Canon. Class. Lat. 168; a Vita Vitelli Nicolai Tifernatis, Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 2949; the Manzoli Hours, Geneva, Comites Latentes Collection, cod. 49; and a Legenda Sancte Iuliane vidue de Bancis de Bononia, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. lat. 3708) and 13 other manuscripts attributable to him (including the Offiziolo Durazzo, Genova, Biblioteca Civica Berio, ms. Arm. 1; the present manuscript no 3 on the list; see Nuvoloni, 2008, pp.178-9). Perhaps the most famous of Sallando's manuscripts is the Hours of Bonaparte Ghisilieri (British Library, Yates Thompson 29) illuminated by Amico Aspertini, Perugino and Matteo da Milano.

Illumination:
The sumptuous and highly individual miniatures are the work of the great painter and jeweller Francesco Marmitta of Parma (c.1462-1505). The palette combining dark red, blue, green, black and gold and the use of attenuated architectural forms, jewels and foliage places this manuscript alongside a group of Books of Hours made for members of the leading families of Bologna at the turn of the 16th century, many of which were produced as a result of the association of illuminators – Marmitta among them – with the calligrapher Pierantonio Sallando. Marmitta and Sallando collaborated throughout their careers, and it was in their joint output that sophisticated architectonic borders, such as those of the present prayerbook, were developed in Bologna: characteristic are the brightly coloured Renaissance panels filled with candelabra, arabesques, gems and pearls, as found in another Marmitta-Sallando collaboration, now at the Walters Art Gallery (ms. W.469, see e.g. f.13). The most luxurious and splendid result of their fruitful collaboration was the Offiziolo Durazzo, and there are echoes of that manuscript in the present Hours: the miniature on f.109v of King David wearing a turban, seated in profile on a rock set against a powder-blue background of sea, sky and rolling hills is compositionally strikingly similar to David writing his Psalms on f.174v of the Offiziolo Durazzo.

The subjects of the full-page miniatures are as follows: The Nativity, with the youthful John the Baptist kneeling before the Holy Family, f.1v; Mass of St. Gregory f.102; David in contemplation beside the sea f.109v; Pentecost f.218v.

The historiated initials are on ff.2, 19, 37, 43v, 49, 54, 59, 70, 110, 143, 212, and 219. The epigraphic initial is on f.101v.

Provenance
(1) The arms on f.2 are those of the Dall'Armi family of Bologna, azure, a bend or, charged with 3 roses, accompanied by 2 mullets of 5 points or, and in chief 3 fleurs-de-lis or between a label of 4 points gules. The Dall’Armi were an important Bolognese senatorial family, originally from Tuscany. The collects after the litany mention ‘papa nostro A.’, i.e. Alexander VI, pope from 1492, so the manuscript postdates this. The text includes a whole series of references to the Observant Friars and Angelo da Bolseno (e.g. 'Papa nicolo quinto a preghi de alquanti frati de lordine de sancto francesco de la observantia nel 1449' and 'Papa calixto terzo nel 1456 a preghi deli frati supradicto ordine [...]'. St Francis is the only saint in capital letters in the calendar, and this might give us a clue to the identity of the original owner. A Francesco dall’Armi from the cadet branch of the family who married Caterina Cavallini is documented from 1458. Or perhaps the manuscript may have been commissioned by Giacomo dall’Armi, from the main branch of the family, for the birth of his son Francesco in 1494. This Francesco dall’Armi was a regular correspondent of Federico II Gonzaga, duke of Mantova, and of the author and playright Pietro Aretino (in the later 1530s, Francesco appears deeply involved with the Gonzaga court in relation to the work of the sculptor Alfonso Lombardi and the painter Girolamo da Treviso – see Archivio di Stato di Mantova, Archivio Gonzaga, b. 1251, c. 309r.-v. etc.). The presence of St Jucunda among the virgins in the litany is unexpected and must be significant.

(2) Sotheby’s, 11 July 1978, lot 72.

(3) William H. Schab Gallery, purchased by Alexandre Rosenberg on 14 May 1979 for $43,200.

(4) Rosenberg Ms 19.