[split] Taccola spillover thread

[Bernd]

I tried to look into that, and found no sources with a similar style to Taccola that pre-date him. Taccola has this organic early-humanistic style that is so far the best match for the similarly organic shapes in the VM. It is not only the motifs that match, also the style. I have no doubt that Taccola copied extensively from earlier sources like Kyeser, a lot of their war machines look the same. But Kyeser's style is very medieval. Flat and straight.

As for if and how the VM artist got hold of Palatino 766, I have no idea. But I think it is highly unlikely that emperor Sigismund ever received a copy from Taccola. It was mentioned nowhere, and didn't show up anywhere. Palatino 766 itself remained in Siena with high certainty. If you look at this sketchbook, while Taccola beautified it with additional drawings and as Jorge noted it looks fairly neat, is this really something you'd gift to an emperor? It's a sketchbook not a colorful illuminated manuscript. Maybe Taccola himself realized at some point that this was not appropriate and abandoned the idea to give Palatino766 to Sigismund.