Manuscript on paper containing letters by or related to Lapo da Castiglionchio (d. 1381), and his family: 1) Lapo da Castiglionchio, Letter, written in 1377, to his son Bernardo, canon of the cathedral of Florence, then 14 years old, containing an elaborate treatise in three parts dealing with political and historical questions. 2) Bernardo da Castiglionchio (1363-1383), Letter to his father Lapo, in which he thanks him for the education and protection his father has provided and in particular for the extensive letter he has written in reply to his questions. 3) Bernardo da Castiglionchio, Second letter to his father Lapo, of about the same time, in which he resumes the theme of the nobility of the Castiglionchio family and provides a panegyric of his father with details about his career. 4) Francesco da Castiglionchio (second half of the fourteenth century), Letter to his father Alberto, brother of Lapo, written 8 June 1381 or slightly later. Describes the coronation of Charles III, King of Naples and Sicily (1381-1386) by Pope Urban VI in the church of St. Peter in Rome on 2 June 1381, an event in the preparation of which Lapo had an important role. 5) Francesco da Castiglionchio, Second letter to his father Alberto staying at Verona, dated 17 July 1381 and relating the death of Alberto's brother Lapo, which happened in Rome on 27 June of the same year after a short illness, a couple of weeks after the coronation of Charles III, which had been so important for the improvement of the Castiglionchio family. 6) Niccolò Acciaiuoli (1310-1365), Extracts from a letter, dated 26 Dec. 1364, to the Florentine merchant Angelo Soderini (d. 1377) established in Avignon.
Description:
Binding: Seventeenth century (?). Brown leather with artificial cross grain over cardboard. Blind-tooled spine with four raised bands and gold-tooled inscription in the second compartment: “CASTIGLIONCHIO / EPISTOLE”. Below a small oval paper label with the number “7” in red ink. Yellow spine., Headings and explicit formulas in pale red ink; marginal captions and notes in the same colour or in black; paragraph marks in pale red ink. 4-line initials (Capitalis) in blue (missing f. 2v), at the opening of each art. and of the subdivisions of art. 1. On f. 1r 7-line white vinestem initial integrated into left margin border of the same style. In the lower margin, in a wreath, the Volognano-Castiglionchio coat of arms: silver, with four chains azure in saltire and castle azure. Running headlines in pale red Capitalis in art. 1 only., On the author, a Florentine poet, friend of Petrarch, professor of Canon Law, lawyer, diplomat, politician, see Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, v. 22 (1979), pp. 40-44., and Script: Copied by one hand in careful Humanistica Semitextualis Libraria. The first line of each text and some headings are in Capitalis.
Subject (Geographic):
Florence (Italy)--History
Subject (Name):
Castiglionchio, Lapo da,--d. 1381
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Italian letters, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, and Nobility--Italy