Kings MS 322

SONNETS and other poems of an amatory nature, in Italian. Forty-nine in all, the first beg. 'Amor con sue manere a si gran torto'. The word 'cuore' is everywhere represented by a red heart. The second poem contains the name of the lady, Mirabel Zucharia or Zucharina, to whom it was addressed.

Vellum; ff. 28. 9¹/₈.-in.x 6¹/₂ in. Mid XV cent. Italian (?Naples). Gatherings of 8 leaves (iv⁴). Initials of poems in gold or colour on filigree grounds. On f. 1 a partial border of delicate foliage, with a six-line initial enclosing a pretty little miniature of the poet on his knee, presenting a book to a lady. In the outer margin is a heart in flames with rain falling upon it. The same device (without the rain) appears on a shield per fess or and az. at the foot of the page. It is painted over a coat of arms, which have been identified in a note on the fly-leaf opposite as those of Andrea Matteo Acquaviva, Duke of Atri (b. 1457, d. 1528), viz. or a lion rampant az. (also borne by Manfredini). This identification is doubtful, as the field seems to have been per pale (? az. a chief or and or a base az.) and the tincture of the lion (? sable) is not certain. The shield has a bordure az. charged with a scourge of three cords, a lamb in the upper r. h. corner, and a leading-chain with swivel and tassel. On left of the shield there is a monogram of AM (? Andrea Matteo), and on right the initials MZ (? Mirabel Zucharia), surmounted in both cases by a coronet. The Z has been partially obliterated by a rosette, and the M changed into the same monogram of AM as on the left. Vellum binding.