Add MS 27695

Contents:

This item comprises 15 parchment leaves from the ‘Cocharelli Codex’, of which only 27 leaves and fragments in three different collections survive. The original codex included two richly-illuminated texts, the first on the vices and virtues and the second on historical events during the time of Frederic II of Sicily (r. 1295-1337). The prologue to the treatise on vices and virtues explains that the texts were compiled by a member of the Cocharelli family of Genoa based on tales recounted by his grandfather, Pellegrino Cocharelli (fl. 1269-1307).

f. 1r: Prologue in which the author declares the text's nature and didactic scope;

ff. 2r-15v: Fragments of a text on sin, its manifestations, other connected vices and their definitions.

Other leaves and cuttings from the original are British Library, Additional MS 28841 (7 leaves) and Egerton MS 3127 (2 leaves) and Egerton MS 3781 (1 leaf); Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, J.H. Wade Fund n. 1953.152 (1 leaf); and Florence, Museo del Bargello, inv. 2065 (1 leaf).

Decoration:

12 full-page and 7 half-page or fragmentary miniatures with full historiated borders, with rhomboids, roundels, and quatrefoils containing birds, animals and human figures, in colours and gold.

The subjects of the miniatures and borders are:

f. 1r: Two men reading, one at a desk, and a boy, standing, with scenes of human activities (damaged) in the border;

f. 1v: The Lord in a mandorla surrounded by angels, with the fall of the rebel angels into a gaping hell-mouth with sharp teeth, illustrating the sin of pride;

f. 2r: Hunting scenes, human figures, a lion, a wild boar and birds in the border;

f. 2v: Two men and a boy who carries a bird, against a textile background, with soldiers on foot and on horseback in the border;

f. 3r: Figures holding shields in the border;

f. 3v: Two men arguing, one pointing to a third man, illustrating the sin of wrath, with mounted soldiers and animals, including an elephant, a camel, a deer, and a giraffe in the border;

f. 4r: Two men speaking to a third man who holds a rosary, illustrating the sin of envy, with scenes of hunting, bear-baiting, human, animal, and hybrid figures, including a griffon, in the border;

f. 4v: Human figures, including a ruler seated on an elaborate throne in the border;

f. 5r: The sack of Tripoli, Syria, by the Sultan of Egypt in 1289;

f. 5v: Figures on horseback, with black cloaks and caps, hedgehogs and two dogs attacking a bull;

f. 6r: Clerics and bishops, illustrating the sin of greed, in the border, with a bishop with a mitre and crozier, blessing, below;

f. 6v: The execution of the masters of the Templars in France and the death of Philip IV of France;

f. 7r: The façade of the cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa in the upper border, with statues of Lawrence, Christ the Judge, and Arrotino;

f. 7v: Pawnbroking, illustrating the sin of avarice;

f. 8r: Scenes of banking and usury: of a man taking money from a chest, pictured inside the Banco di San Giorgio, Genoa;

f. 8v: Insects, including a bee and a wasp, in the margins;

f. 9r: Butterflies, a caterpillar, snails, and a cricket in the margins;

f. 9v: One man embracing another who is attacked from behind by an assassin, illustrating the sin of wrath; below is an elephant, a ship anchored off an island, with two figures in a boat and then cooking over a fire on a whale's back, thinking it is an island, and an ostrich with eggs;

f. 10r: A procession of men, one with a document in his hands and another holding a banner of Michael;

f. 10v: Knights in armour, with helmets, in the border;

f. 11r: Insects in the border;

f. 11v: Four men in conversation (above) three men in conversation, one seated (below);

f. 12r: A gambling scene, illustrating the sin of avarice;

f. 12v: Insects in the margins;

f. 13r: A Tartar Khan enthroned at a lavish banquet with courtiers, dogs, and musicians, illustrating the sin of gluttony;

f. 13v: Abel and his flock, and below, the Temptation and Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Paradise;

f. 14r: A scene in a tavern with men drinking, and below a cellarer passing up a drink, illustrating the sin of gluttony;

f. 14v: Two figures on horseback, one with a hawk, with a hunting scene in the lower margin, and exotic animals including camels and giraffes;

f. 15r: A couch in a tent and (nearly obliterated) ?nude figures illustrating the sin of lust;

f. 15v: A woman in a dress with a fasionable high waistline, 'mi-parti' garment and long hair, with birds in cages, illustrating the sin of lust, and in the lower margin, a man setting a trap.

The decoration was formerly assigned to a Genoese ‘Monk of Hyères’, thought to be active around 1370. It is now recognised that at least two artists worked on the illuminations between c. 1330-40, with most of the full-page miniatures painted by the so-called ‘Master of the Cocharelli Codex’ (see Fabbri, ‘Maestro del Codice Cocharelli’ (2004), pp. 495-97).