Title

Roman history

miniaturist

Juan de Carrión [attributed to] [or workshop] (Documented in the last third of the 15th century)

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Dimensions

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Inscriptions / Marks

Here begins the first book of the histories of Rome by Paulo Osorio, which was translated by Don Fernán Álvarez de Toledo, lord of the town of Salvatierra and Valdecorneja, Count of Alva, second lieutenant on the frontier of Andalusia against Granada for the most serene king Don Johan of Castile.

Object history

This manuscript was attributed by Saulnier (1982) to the workshop of Juan de Carrión and is considered one of the artist's earliest works (Villaseñor, 2009). He had his workshop in the city of Segovia and was closely linked to the environment of Henry IV of Castile, for whom he made some works such as the Book of the Knight Zifar.

On the first folio the following inscription can be read:

"Here begins the first book of the histories of Rome by Paulo Osorio, which was translated by Don Fernán Álvarez de Toledo, Lord of the town of Salvatierra and Valdecorneja, Count of Alva, second Ensign on the border of Andalusia against Granada by the most serene King Don Johan of Castile".

The last folio of the manuscript specifies the following:

"Here are finished writing the XVI books of the histories of Rome of Paulo Osorio, taken out again now the compedios and the commentaries in romance. E are the said books in one volume which are written inside in twelve notebooks and two letters of paper and has in each notebook twelve letters. E el presente libro fízolo Pero Días de la torre, ciudadano de Aragón. El cual libro fizo trasladar estando en la cibdat de Segovia. E fue comencado de trasla dar lunes primero die de septiembre, año de la natividad de Nuestro Señor de mill.cccccxlij. años. E was finished writing Saturday. Iiij. Days of the month of October of the aforesaid year.Here is finished the XV. Book of the Roman histories Deo gratias".

Fernán Álvarez de Toledo was a cousin of Íñigo López de Mendoza, Marquis of Santillana. Both had forged a great friendship over the years, which led them to share common interests in different matters. The Marquis of Santillana had in his personal library a translation in Spanish of the Roman History of Paulo Diácono. This had been made by Alfonso Gómez de Zamora in 1439 from an Aragonese version sponsored by Juan Fernández de Heredia (Cacho, 2002). Fernán Álvarez de Toledo, emulating his cousin, wanted to have this same volume in his library, so he ordered the same copy in 1442.

It is unknown how this manuscript left the country, however, it must have happened in the middle of the 19th century, since it was sold at Sotheby's in an auction of manuscripts and printed books (lot 746) (James, 1912). Frank McLean, a civil engineer and avid collector, acquired the manuscript and from then on it became part of his personal collection. In 1904 he donated to the Fitzwillian Museum two hundred and thirty printed books and two hundred manuscripts, including this one (James, 1912).

Description

This manuscript consists of 70 folios. It narrates the history of Rome with notes about the three continents, moral excerpts from Aristotle and a manual of princes. It has sixteen initials decorated with vegetal elements, a female face on folio 35 and a possible self-portrait on folio 1.

Locations

• ca. 1442

  province

  Possible origin in the province of Segovia, Segovia (Spain)

• ca. 1442

  private collection

  Fernán Álvarez de Toledo, Alba de Tormes (Spain) *

• Third quarter of the XIX^th c. - ca. 1903

  private collection

  Frank McLean, Cambridge (United Kingdom) *

• ca. 1904 - present

  museum

  The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (United Kingdom)