III.2. Italian Princely Libraries

Inspired by the fervent book collecting of Niccolo Niccoli (1364- 1437) and fellow humanists in Florence, the wealthy banker and politician, Cosimo de’ Medici (1389-1464), assembled a formidable private collection of deluxe all'antica codices. Evoking the municipal libraries of the ancient world, in 1444 Cosimo bestowed on his city a library located in the Dominican convent of San Marco. The first public library since antiquity, its collection included classical and patristic texts (cat. no. 194). Cosimo’s munificence reinforced his position as de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic. The first Italian ruler to demonstrate the political power of humanist books, Cosimo provided the model for rulers vying to control Italy’s numerous principalities. At Cesena, Novello da Malatesta (1418-65) imitated Medici, converting a Franciscan church into a civic library, which still stands with its collection of chained books largely intact (cat. nos. 1-4). Cosimo’s purveyor of manuscripts, Vespasiano da Bisticci (1421-98), was commissioned by Italian and foreign potentates, including the French prelate, Jean Jouffroy (1412-73), to furnish their libraries with manuscripts in the new Florentine style (cat. no. 196).

The rulers of northern Italian city-states, who previously had outsourced the decoration of their books to Florentine monk-illuminators such as Don Simone Camaldolese (cat. no. 198), lured humanists, scribes, and miniaturists to their courts to work exclusively for them. Their magnificent libraries boasted deluxe manuscripts decorated with coats of arms, emblems, and mottoes made for their own use or received as gifts. The humanist Pier Candido Decembrio (1399-1477) presented a compilation of his historical works to secure a position at the court of Borso d’Este (1450-71), Duke of Ferrara, whose two-volume bible earned him fame as a bibliophile of particular discernment (cat. no. 199). Borso’s successor Ercole d’Este (r. 1471-1505) asserted the legitimacy of his appointment by sending a manuscript glorifying himself in the guise of the mythical hero Hercules, with whom he shared a name, to the Duke of Milan Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1444-76). The Visconti-Sforza coat of arms, depicting a biscione (or snake swallowing a child) quartered with the imperial eagle, was added to the manuscript’s borders (cat. no. 200, see opposite). The book’s colorful floral decoration in the style of one of Borso’s favorite illuminators, Guglielmo Giraldi, suggested continuity between their reigns, further supporting Ercole’s dynastic claims. The marriage of Ercole’s cultivated daughter Isabella d’Este (1474-1539) to Francesco II Gonzaga (r. 1484-1519), Marquis of Mantua in 1491, occasioned a prayer book from her husband's library to be adapted for her use by the celebrated Paduan scribe Bartolomeo Sanvito (cat. no. 232).

The papacy harnessed books as potent symbols of its authority in matters of faith, and of its historical and moral legitimacy. The Vatican Library, reestablished by the humanist pope Nicholas V (r. 1447-55) and augmented by his successors, became the largest repository of books in all fields of learning in Europe. Texts on the history of the Roman Empire found special favor as they supported the popes’ claim to be the heirs of the imperial mission to civilize and unite (cat. nos. 201-2). Under the Medici pontiffs Leo X (r. 1513-21) and Clement VII (r. 1523-34), the papal scriptorium was a magnet for talented illuminators throughout Europe. Their collaborative efforts achieved new heights of sumptuousness in service books, enhancing the dignity and beauty of rites performed in the Sistine Chapel (cat. nos. 77-78, 221). In 1549 Paul III appointed a Frenchman Vincent Raymond the first official papal illuminator with life tenure (cat. nos. 203-4, 221). Paul’s nephew Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1520-89), whose book of hours and lectionary were illuminated by Giulio Clovio, epitomized the high-ranking prelate who styled himself as an erudite prince of the church (cat. no. 202).

In Venice, the doges’ practice of sending patricians to govern the Serene Republic’s mainland and maritime territories for brief sixteen-month periods fueled a local industry specialized in the production of manuscripts commemorating political appointments, often bearing a portrait of the officer-elect or other imagery of personal significance (cat. nos. 205-7). Manuscripts of the classics in the library of the illustrious Venetian diplomat, Bernardo Bembo (1433-1519), were fundamental to the publishing success of the printer Aldus Manutius (cat. no. 210). In 1530, his son, the learned Cardinal Pietro Bembo (1470-1547), who copied and edited texts for Aldine editions, was appointed head of the Marciana Library (cat. no. 249). The role put him in charge of the 1,024 manuscripts (mainly Greek) donated to Venice by the great Cardinal Bessarion (1403-72), which had remained closed in boxes since 1468. In 1537, the distinguished architect Jacopo Sansovino commenced grand designs for a public library suitable to house the gift and its location opposite the doges’ palace at the heart of the Venetian Empire.

The Aragon Kingdom of Naples was also home to a spectacular library, founded by Ferdinand I (r. 1458-94) and his wife Isabella di Chiaromonte (1424-65) (cat. nos. 209 and 228). Their daughter Beatrice of Aragon (1457-1508) married King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary (1443-90) taking books with her to his court at Buda (cat. no. 239). They formed the Bibliotheca Corviniana, the second largest book collection in Europe after the Vatican, almost fulfilling Corvinus’s ambition to outshine every other monarch with his library (cat. no. 211).