I would prefer to keep Taccola-specific talk that is not related to Barbara of Cilli and the Hungarian connection in the dedicated thread.
We are talking about de ingeneis book 3+4, Palatino 766. Taccola's personal notebook dedicated to emperor Sigismund. No known (full) copies of this book exist, in contrast to his books 1+2 and his later works. The notebook vanished soon after Taccola finished it and only resurfaced much later in the 17th century in the possession of the Sienese Strozzi family as Marco has shown. We may assume they owned it the whole time.
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Even so, imagery from Pal. 766 did not find their way into later copies of Taccola's books. There is the incomplete copy Palatino 767, also from the Strozzi family, but it omits the VM-relevant imagery. Which means - books 3+4 were always obscure and never widely available. And exactly from this, VM imagery likely originated.
(23-02-2026, 09:59 PM)Jorge_Stolfi wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Considering Taccola's fame, there must have been hundreds of copies (and copies of copies, and ...) of his book going around in the 1400s.No, this is not true as Koen pointed out, and this is the point here!
We are talking about de ingeneis book 3+4, Palatino 766. Taccola's personal notebook dedicated to emperor Sigismund. No known (full) copies of this book exist, in contrast to his books 1+2 and his later works. The notebook vanished soon after Taccola finished it and only resurfaced much later in the 17th century in the possession of the Sienese Strozzi family as Marco has shown. We may assume they owned it the whole time.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.
Even so, imagery from Pal. 766 did not find their way into later copies of Taccola's books. There is the incomplete copy Palatino 767, also from the Strozzi family, but it omits the VM-relevant imagery. Which means - books 3+4 were always obscure and never widely available. And exactly from this, VM imagery likely originated.