Breviary
Posted by John Bidwell
Friday, February 18, 2011 1:11:00 PM
Catholic Church. Breviary. Breuiarium romanum. Venice: Giovanni Varisco & Company, 1562. Purchased as the gift of Jamie K. Kamph and on the Harper Fund, 2011.
About twenty printed books and manuscripts have been attributed to the Arabesque Outline Tool Binder, active in Venice between 1560 and 1571. Breviaries were part of the stock in trade of this workshop, which also had a sideline in lavishly decorated Commissioni dogali, legal documents issued by the doge of Venice. The central design here reappears in a 1571 Commissione at the British Library as part of a larger composition, including the same gilt-tooled flower and leaf ornaments forming a graceful arabesque pattern filled with criblé gold dots.