The Voynich Ninja

This one is late and may be irrelevant, but it's an interesting view nonetheless. The wall has goopy white stuff below the merlons, as if it has recently been repaired. From Carlo Crivelli's masterful Annunciation altarpiece, painted in 1486: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

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It was painted for the town of Ascoli Piceno, which seems to have had a troubled history, changing owners in the 15th century. 
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(23-08-2026, 04:56 PM)Linda Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Found another

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page 193:192

From Library: Florence - Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze Shelfmark: II.II.62



And this one, not from Da Sfera, but from De Re Militari by Valturio but I think it is probably too late.

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Great.. so we have 3 and of course that is only the digitised ones..from my research something like 51 out of 166 have been scanned... I'm doing some work at the moment on the stars picture.. more soon..

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(23-08-2026, 07:29 PM)Koen G Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.This one is late and may be irrelevant, but it's an interesting view nonetheless. The wall has goopy white stuff below the merlons, as if it has recently been repaired. From Carlo Crivelli's masterful Annunciation altarpiece, painted in 1486: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.



It was painted for the town of Ascoli Piceno, which seems to have had a troubled history, changing owners in the 15th century. 
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Yes, the bricks are different and the white suggests that it has been repaired indeed..

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Panel painting by Rimini-based artist Giovanni Baronzio, 1335. The intended location is presumed to be close to Rimini as well.

Now that's what I call a mobilization. 
1. I added the Tacuinum sanitatis manuscripts on page 57: BNF lat. 9333 (Swabia or Upper Rhine, 1445-50), BNF NAL 1673 (Pavia or Milano, around 1400), Bibliothèque de l'Université de Liège, Ms. 1041 (same Visconti circle, 1380-1400), and Biblioteca Casanatense, Ms. 4182 (another Visconti copy, 1390-1400). 
2. Following the discussion in the Weltchronik thread (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.), I moved the Kassel MS (Theol. 4) from Bavaria to Venice in line with the quoted paper by Hartmut Bozinski. I also added the BSB Cgm 250 (Bavaria or Austria, 1400-1450), the  Zurich Ms. Rh. 15 (Zürich, ca. 1350), and the ÖNB Cod. Ser. nova 2612 (Southwest Germany, 1336, with an Upper Rhenish addendum on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. from the late 15th century). I did not add the BSB Cgm 7375 in keeping with my principle of not including anything labelled as "middle of the 15th century". According to Rudolf Kilian Weigand, the manuscript may have been commissioned by Caspar von Gufidaun, judging by the coat of arms on 62v/63r. This nobleman from South Tyrol was one of the main antagonists of Bishop Nicolaus Cussanus in the 1450s.  As far as I know, he was first recorded in 1438 and passed away in 1458. 
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3.  I removed the Castle of Saint-Pierre and moved the San Michele fresco a few pixels to its correct location.
4. BNCF, Fondo Nazionale II.IX.137 is from the late 15th century. 
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5. Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms-8536 is labelled as 15th-century. I couldn't a more precise dating, so I cannot add it. 
6. Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Firenze II.II.62 is also from the late 15th century.
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7. The oldest known copy of Roberto Valturio's treatise is the Urb.lat.281, dated 11 May 1462. I believe the manuscript you shared might be Padova, Biblioteca Capitolare della Curia Vescovile, D. 11 from 1472.
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8. It is unclear where the Giovanni Battista polyptich comes from, but it may have been a church dedicated to the saint in Emilia-Romagna or the Marche 
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9. Dossale Corvisieri by the same painter, originally at the Convento Santa Croce in Villa Verucchio
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10. Storie di Santa Colomba by Giovanni Baronzio, originally in the Rimini Cathedral
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11. "I funerali di Drusiana" - 14th-century fresco at S.Agostino di Rimini
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12. Marco's fresco on page 6: Giacomino da Ivrea - Ciclo dei Prodi di Villa Castelnuovo, second quarter of the 15th century.
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13. As for Ascoli Piceno, I have found a 15th-century veduta with the naked towers (see discusson on page 54):
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Some observations on the Torre del Pegol in Brescia. We know that the 12th-century tower received a Gothic-style restoration in 1434, followed by multiple rounds of repairs until the mid-16th century. Since the current swallowtail merlons were added in 1830, I assumed they did not exist before, but the evidence is not so straightforward.

The first depiction we have is from 1530, but the outline of the merlons is unclear. This is also the last time the castle had swallowtail merlons. Between Donato Rascicotti's plan of 1599 and the 1904 expo, the castle is awlays shown with a bare front wall and a Guelph tower on the left, except in Francesco Maffei's painting. It probably acquired this appearance during the final pre-modern restoration in the late 16th century.

Note that the Torre del Pegol is completely absent. If we count only the drawings in which the tower does appear, we obtain an unusual sequence. In chronological order: Unclear, Guelph and Roofed, Guelph, Roofed, Guelph, Roofed, Roofed, Roofed, Swallowtail, Swallowtail, Guelph/Ruined, Guelph/Ruined, Guelph/Ruined, Swallowtail, Guelph/Ruined. 

Although there is no early evidence for swallowtail merlons on the Torre del Pegol, the depictions are so inconsistent that we cannot say for sure what they looked like throughout the centuries. Why did Francesco Battaglioli draw merlons on the Broletto, which never had them, and the Torre del Pegol, only to show Guelph or ruined merlons in two later drawings? One explanation is that he attempted a rare reconstruction of an earlier period. If so, the same can be argued of Francesco Maffei's painting and the 1764 plan. However, I am not aware of any other instance in which swallowtail merlons were similarly reconstructed by an artist. An alternative explanation is that the tower had swallowtail merlons between the mid-17th century, when it lost its roof, and the mid-18th century, when only the base of the merlons was still visible. Whatever the case, the late fifteenth-century Torre della Pallata, the early 16th-century restoration of swallowtail merlons on the castle (as depicted in 1530), the Maffei painting and the drawings of the Torre del Pegol suggest that swallowtail merlons remained part of the architectural repertoire without interruption.


Reupload of the Maffei painting and the 1530 fresco.

The late architect and historian Valentino Volta (d. 2025) mentions Guelph merlons before the 1830 restoration, but we may never know if his comment was based on better evidence than the ruined merlons in our drawings.

Quote:Nel corso dei secoli la parte terminale coi merli venne probabilmente rifatta più volte, perchè la più esposta ai danni. Nel 1830, podestà un Averoldi di tradizione ghibellina, vennero rifatti i merli a coda di rondine, come attualmente li vediamo, a sostituzione di quelli esistenti a terminazione piana (guelfi). Fu usata la pietra di corna di Botticino perchè considerata più resistente.

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Confirmation of the swallowtail merlons in Tuscania
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Swallowtail Merlons in Siena... 1440s

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P.s. I'm following an interesting Siena lead .. it ticks far more boxes than anyone previously thought...more of which later..

First artwork from Verona? You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

The Siena manuscript appears unobjectionable. We know that it was held at the Convento Carmelitano di San Niccolò di Siena between 1555 and 1810, and that the Sienese illustrator from the Guild of Painters died at the Convento di San Domenico di Siena in 1464. The manuscript bears his signature and two date inscriptions (1442 dicembre 1; 1443 luglio) in his hand.
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The website makes an interesting comparison between the miniatures and modern comic strips:

Quote:Certains commentaires anciens des vignettes qui, dans le manuscrit, accompagnent le texte, font apparaître que leurs auteurs n’ont pas toujours pu saisir le charme ni l’étonnante habileté qui s’en dégagent. Tant il est vrai que les jugements esthétiques sont conditionnés par l’époque et le milieu culturel dans lesquels ils sont formulés. Niccolò di Giovanni, qui ne fut jamais formé au métier de peintre, est ainsi qualifié de « peintre moins que médiocre du Quattrocento » [65]. N’ayant « d’autre mérite que celui d’avoir copié [la chronique], en y ajoutant quelques amplifications inappropriées et emphatiques », il a « représenté au bas de chaque page, avec de grossiers dessins en couleurs, ce que l’on peut lire au-dessus » [66]. Aujourd’hui, on considère à raison que « la complexité du système figuratif et son extension, combinées aux considérations sur la chronologie relative des phases de création de l’objet par Niccolò, constituent des indices susceptibles de confirmer l’hypothèse formulée par Degenhart et Schmitt [67], selon laquelle nous sommes face à la copie d’un manuscrit plus ancien, qui contenait non seulement le texte mais encore les dessins qui l’accompagnaient, peut-être eux-mêmes l’œuvre de professionnels ; si, en effet, on peut considérer que « l’écart entre la complexité de l’élaboration des sujets et la mauvaise qualité de l’exécution est notable » [68], on ne peut qu’être également frappé de constater à quel point point la naïveté du trait et l’expressivité des figures, cohabitant avec une merveilleuse capacité de composition des scènes historiées, y compris en se jouant de la surface disponible, s’apparente à une forme d’art très actuel qui a pour nom la bande dessinée.

Before we continue with Brescia, I would like to show you two remarkable sets of frescoes: 
1. The comune of Lentate sul Seveso near Milano stands out for its three frescoed oratori, of which the Oratorio di Santo Stefano is the most richly painted and the only one to feature swallowtail merlons. 

Maestri di Letante, Life and Martyrdom of Stephen, early 15th century
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This cycle is particularly interesting because of the lone swallowtail merlons at roof corners, which can also be seen in photographs of the Palazzo del Podestà di Castell'Arquato taken between ca. 1900 and 1916.



1913 photograph of the Palazzo. 

2. Abbazia Benedettina di San Pietro a Villanova in San Bonifacio, Provincia di Verona houses multiple works with swallowtail merlons.
The first piece is the Ancona di San Pietro by Antonio da Mestre and his workshop, dating to the first decade of the 15th century. The panel with swallowtail merlons shows Saint Peter visiting Agatha in prison and healing her amputated breasts. According to tradition, Saint Agatha was imprisoned and tortured by the Roman prefect Quintianus after she rejected his advances. She is considered the patron saint of rape victims.



Next, we have the Storie di San Benedetto by the Maestro di Villanova, possibly Martino da Verona (first decade of the 15th century). 


Lastly, the same scene from the Storie di Sant’Agata by a Veronese painter close to the style of Giovanni Badile (third decade of the 15th century).

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Angelo Passuello, L’ABBAZIA DI VILLANOVA DAL QUATTROCENTO AL SEICENTO. 2013, sections 7-9.
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Angelo Passuello, I dipinti murali dell'abbazia di Villanova. 2019, sections 2.0, 2.1, 3.0, 4.0, 4.1, 7.0, 9.0
In the 2019 article, the ancona is redated to the 1430s, but this might be a typo as six fresco fragments from this decade are listed above it.