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The Codex Rustici and the fifteenth‐century Florentine artisan
Author(s) -
Olive Kathleen
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
renaissance studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.117
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1477-4658
pISSN - 0269-1213
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-4658.2009.00579.x
Subject(s) - fifteenth , pilgrimage , scholarship , poetry , biography , art , period (music) , literature , history , classics , art history , ancient history , aesthetics , law , political science
Ostensibly the description of a Holy Land pilgrimage, the Codex Rustici ( c . 1442) is better known for its watercolour illustrations of Florence's churches. Detailed biographical information on the author, Marco di Bartolomeo Rustici, has not previously been offered. Here I present new data on Rustici's biography and analyse what he read and wrote about himself, eliding statistical data and Rustici's textual divagations. In the process, the paper builds on previous scholarship about Italian artisans in the fifteenth century. It gives an indication of the literary possibilities open to such men, and adds to what scholars understand of Florentine artistic and poetic self‐representations in this period.