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Manuskripte und seltene Bücher
Dondedeo Bos Fornari with the relic of the Holy Cross in front of the Cathedral of
Genoa, full-page miniature from a family chronicle on vellum of the Genoese Fornari
family, probably illuminated by Andrea Semino. Italy, Genoa, after 1553.
515 x 352 mm. A full-page miniature surrounded by a richly ornamented full border. Tempera on
vellum. Old foliation in brown ink in the upper left corner: ‘3’; on the verso the number ‘190’ in
pencil. Text written in capital letters in red ink below the depiction. Minor flaking of colour and repair
in the background, otherwise in an excellent state of preservation.
PROVENANCE
1. The four single leaves, to which the item at hand belongs (see companion leaves),
unquestionably originate in one manuscript, which can be identified as a chronicle of the
Genoese Fornari family, commissioned by a family member in the sixteenth century. The
Fornari family is documented in Genoa since the twelfth century. During the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries it provided several consuls and was later involved in the municipal
government constituted of the podestà and the nobili. During the sixteenth century the Fornari
family was still actively engaged in politics. Like the Doria family or the Spinola family the
Fornaris played an important part in the history of Genoa. Genealogical chronicles were very
popular in the sixteenth century; a number of specimens dating from this time are handed
down, for instance the codex on the history of the Freschi family in the Biblioteca Maricana
Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG · Mosboden 1 · 6063 Stalden · Schweiz
Office: Spalenberg 55 · 4051 Basel · Fon +41 61 275 7575 · Fax +41 61 275 7576
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Manuskripte und seltene Bücher
in Venice (It. VII. 165) or the manuscript documenting the family history of the Medici in
Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana (Med. Pal. 225).
2. Stefano Bardini (1836-1922), Florence (see E. Fahy, L’Archivo storico fotografico di
Stefano Bardini, Florence 2000, fig. 692-693).
3. Sotheby’s London, 13 July 1908, lot 105. At that time the leaves were bound in a red
morocco binding and apart from the miniatures in question here the fragment included a
double-page with a family tree of the Fornari family and two further miniatures arranged in
four compartments rendering four persons each, among them Otto Fornarius in the year 1105.
The date suggests that these two leaves, the whereabouts of which are unknown today, were
the first two leaves within the chronicle, numbered as “1” and “2”.
4. Private collection, Switzerland.
COMPANION LEAVES
1. The consul Lamberto Fornari appointing the pirate Alamanno count (513 x 356 mm). Old
foliation in brown ink in the upper left corner: ‘4’. Private collection Switzerland.
2. Lamberto Fornari in front of the panorama of the harbour of Genoa (512 x 360 mm). Old
foliation in brown ink in the upper left corner :‘5’. Private collection Switzerland.
3. Three nobili and a notary from the Fornari family (513 x 360 mm). Old foliation in brown
ink in the upper left corner: ‘6’; on the verso the number ‘191‘ in pencil. Dr. Jörn Günther
Rare Books, Switzerland.
TEXT
Dondevobos. de. Fornariis. anno. 1203. capta. per. venetos. / et. alios. christianos. principes.
constantinopoli. partem. / sanctae. crvcis. lammis. argenteis. et. avreis. ac. mar/garitis.
ornatam. mvltasq(ve). alias. reliqvias. qve. / venetis. ex. manvbiis. in. partem. contigerant. et.
per. / eos. venetias. con. navi. transmitebantvr. con. dvabvs. ei/vs triremibvs. dictamq(ve).
navim vi. cepit. et. genvam. appo/rtavit. et. dictam. crvcem. aedi. divi. Lavrentii. donavit.
reliqvas. vero. reliqvias. fratribvs. predicatoribvs. qve. indvabvs. tabvl/is. cvm. lammis.
argenteis. reposite. fvervnt. dono. dedit.
ILLUMINATION
Framed by an elaborate colourful ornamental border the leaf presents the depiction of a man
armed with breastplate and sword, walking and holding a gold cross in his left hand. Behind
him one can see to the left a church, to the right facades of buildings and church towers in
front of a spacious ‘world landscape’ with water and ships, hills, rocks, coppices and villages.
By means of the inscription inserted below the image field the depicted person can be
identified. It is the Genoese Dondedeo Bos – also called Deodedelo – from the Fornari family,
who according to sources on the history of Genoa made a name for himself as a pirate during
the fourth crusade (1202-1204). When the Venetians were on the return journey after the
conquest of Constantinople with loads of treasures on board, the ship with the spoils of war
was stolen from them by the pirate Dondedeo Bos, who brought it to Genoa. The works of art
from Constantinople included, besides other relics, the so-called Crux Helenae, with a piece
Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG · Mosboden 1 · 6063 Stalden · Schweiz
Office: Spalenberg 55 · 4051 Basel · Fon +41 61 275 7575 · Fax +41 61 275 7576
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Manuskripte und seltene Bücher
from the Cross of Christ, which according to Jacopo da Voragine Helena had made for
Constantine the Great. According to a version of the follower of the historiographer Caffaro,
however, the relic belonged to St. Helena, but the reliquary of the Holy Cross is supposed to
have been commissioned later by the Patriarch of Constantinople (see Anton Frolow, La
relique de la vraie croix. Paris 1961, p. 381-382). On his return Dondedeo donated the cross
to the Cathedral of Genoa. For the time being he kept the other relics for himself in the hope
of turning them into money. Later he presented them to the Dominican order.
The church in the middle ground
can therefore most probably be
identified as San Lorenzo, the
Cathedral of Genoa, the facade of
which faces the sea front in
reality and is not averted from the
shore. Parallels between the
original church and the painted
version of it exist with respect to
the two church towers, of which
the right one is larger than the
left one. The facade of a palace to
the left decorated with mural
painting is characteristic of
Genoa. Especially worthy of
mention is the delicacy and
precision with which the face and
the armour of the warrior are
rendered, and the detail applied
to the view of the town and the
panorama of the landscape in the
background, which extends to the
horizon.
The miniature and the cartouche with the inscription are framed by a full border which is
composed of four decorative bars colourfully designed in various shades of red. The two
lateral bars are almost identical, the upper and the lower show different designs. The lower
border with flowers, fruits and animals set on a ground of liquid gold is rather atypical of
Italian miniatures, and corresponds to a modified Italian version of Flemish borders, which
disseminated in late fifteenth and sixteenth century manuscripts.
The miniatures have been tentatively attributed by Dr. Di Fabio to the circle of the Calvi or
more precisely to Andrea Semino. In 1559, near in the time where the miniatures were
executed, the artist painted a fresco in the Palazzo of Gerolamo de Fornari in Genoa. Member
of the Semino family who belonged to the most well-known fresco painters in Genova at that
time, he might have also done book illumination (see the attribution of a Virgin Mary with the
Christ child in the Galleria di Palazzo Bianco in Genoa – C. Di Fabio, Gio. Battista Castello
Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG · Mosboden 1 · 6063 Stalden · Schweiz
Office: Spalenberg 55 · 4051 Basel · Fon +41 61 275 7575 · Fax +41 61 275 7576
[email protected] · www.guenther-rarebooks.com
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Manuskripte und seltene Bücher
“il Genovese”. Miniatura e devozione a Genova fra Cinque e Seicento, catalogo della mostra,
Genoa 1990). Apart from the high artistic quality of the painting the significance of these
illuminated leaves is therefore widely defined by their references to the municipal and cultural
heritage of Genoa.
LITERATURE ON THE FORNARI FAMILY
Giovanni Battista Di Crollalanza, Dizionario storico-blasonico delle famiglie nobili e notabili
italiane estinte e fiorenti, 3 vols. Pisa 1886-1890, here vol. 1, 1886, p. 99.
Antonio Cappellini, Dizionario biografico di genovesi illustri e notabili. Bologna 1941, p.
380 (cf. Archivio biografico italiano I 423, 12; II 248, 180).
ON THE HISTORY OF GENOA:
Codice diplomatico della Repubblica di Genova dal MCLXIII al MCLXXXX, ed. by Cesare
Imperiale di Sant’Angelo. In: Fonti per la storia d’Italia, vol. 89. Rome 1942.
Jacopo da Voragine, Cronaca di Genova dalle origini al MCCXCVII, ed. by Giovanni
Monleone. In: Fonti per la storia d’Italia, vol. 84. Rome 1969.
Annali genovesi di Caffaro e de’ suoi continuatori dal MCLXXIV al MCCXXIV, ed. by Luigi
Tommaso Belgrano and Cesare d’Imperiale di Sant’Angelo. In: Fonti per la storia d’Italia,
vol. 12. Rome 1929.
Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books AG · Mosboden 1 · 6063 Stalden · Schweiz
Office: Spalenberg 55 · 4051 Basel · Fon +41 61 275 7575 · Fax +41 61 275 7576
[email protected] · www.guenther-rarebooks.com