Lisandro Costiner’s report on ACHA-funded dissertation research in Rome

My doctoral dissertation brings to light a hitherto neglected text of The Life of the Virgin and of Christ that enjoyed widespread popularity in Italy in the early-Renaissance.  The study charts the production, circulation and illumination of these codices and contributes to our understanding of written culture and lay piety in fourteenth and fifteenth-century Italy. As this text has not been previously studied, my research is grounded in a close examination of surviving manuscripts and early printed editions.

With the generosity of the ACHA, I was able to embark on a research trip to Rome in the summer of 2015. In particular, I set out to examine a number of manuscripts in the Biblioteca Angelica, Biblioteca dell’Accademia dei Lincei and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. My goals were twofold: first to study surviving manuscripts in order to trace the transmission, circulation and devotional use of the text; secondly, from an art-historical perspective, to understand the strategies used to illustrate such books.

As manuscripts of The Life of the Virgin and of Christ  have been cataloged under a variety of titles, abridged, translated into regional dialects, or bound with other texts, a careful investigation of each codex is essential in reconstructing the surviving corpus.  After careful consultation of more than a dozen manuscripts, I determined that only two codices (one in the Biblioteca Angelica and one in the Biblioteca dell’Accademia dei Lincei) contained copies of The Life of the Virgin and of Christ. Others enclosed similar narratives that were drawn from different sources. The two copies of the text offered  insights towards the understanding of the circulation, customization and use of The Life of the Virgin and of Christ in the early-Renaissance. In terms of production, these manuscripts were simple, written on cheap materials (paper), conforming to the general trend of the circulation of this text in lay circles.  Inscriptions recording the names of individual owners further attested to lay use. Careful study also allowed me to map the contents of each manuscript. This brought renewed evidence that in the hands of the laity, devotional texts in the vernacular were not faithfully transmitted but were changed, translated into regional dialects, extended or abridged to fit the needs of individual owners.

In terms of illustration, the manuscripts of The Life of the Virgin and of Christ in Rome contained little decoration.  Nonetheless, the time in the city allowed me to delve more deeply into the study of illustration of devotional books by owners for personal use and consult a wide range of examples.  In the art historical sphere, this type of illustration has been neglected and prejudiced largely because of its simplicity and unprofessional nature.  It remains, however, fertile ground for the understanding of personal devotion and the mediating role of images – an important theme of my dissertation. The Vatican’s Biblioteca Apostolica has an especially rich collection of such codices. Their study revealed a widespread movement of personal transcription and illustration of manuscripts in Renaissance Italy and the different strategies used in their creation and decoration.

Overall, the trip to Rome deepened my study of The Life of the Virgin and of Christ and provided new insights into the customization of such books both textually and visually.  I would like to renew my thanks to the ACHA for enabling a productive research stay in Rome and for so generously supporting my research.