Valerius Maximus, Factorum et Dictorum Memorabilium, with a large initial enclosing a monastic reader, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on parchment [Italy (probably Bologna), second half of fourteenth century]

Single leaf, with a large historiated initial 'N' (opening Nunc, quo aequiore ..., the opening of book VIII) in pale brown with white penwork, enclosing a reader in a monastic cowl as he holds open a book before him and reads, that before a deep blue ground with white penwork, and the whole initial on burnished gold grounds and with coloured acanthus leaf sprays with gold bezants with single penwork 'tails' in the adjacent margin, large initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork, paragraph marks in alternate red or blue, rubrics and numbers at side of capitula list in hairline penstrokes, main text in double column of 36 lines of a densely written gothic bookhand, grain pattern visible on parchment, some slight cockling, small areas of white paint flaked from surface of open book in initial, else excellent condition, 279 by 195mm. (written space 185 by 128mm.); mounted in modern gilt frame

This historiated initial and its border decoration are by a follower of Stefano degli Azzi (documented in Bologna 1363-1400), and shares that artist's facial modelling, tightly scrolling acanthus leaves and bezants with a single flagella-like tail (compare P. Palladino, Treasures of a Lost Art, 2003, pp. 29-30). The depiction of the reader of this secular text as a monk, perhaps even a Augustinian, might suggest that the parent volume was made for monastic house in Bologna or its vicinity, such as the monastery of San Giacomo Maggiore in the city.