Advanced Search
Advanced Search

De la Ruine des Nobles hommes et femmes (Of the ruin of noble men and women)

Author: Giovanni Boccaccio (Italian, 1313–1375)
Illustrated by: Master of the Boccaccio Illustrations (Netherlandish, 1470–1490)
Printer and Publisher: Colard Mansion (Netherlandish, 1440–1484)
1476
Place of Publication: Bruges, Netherlands

Medium/Technique Illustrated book with nine hand-colored engravings
Dimensions Overall: 38.3 × 29 × 8 cm (15 1/16 × 11 7/16 × 3 1/8 in.)
Sheet (each): 37 × 26 cm (14 9/16 × 10 1/4 in.)
Credit Line Maria Antoinette Evans Fund
Accession Number32.458
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsBooks and manuscripts
(Bruges: Colard Mansion, 1476) Folio; 290 leaves; modern armorial gilt-stamped brown morocco binding (Orrock & Son, Edinburgh, 1871).
Published in the prosperous Flemish town of Bruges, this is the earliest known printed book illustrated with engravings, which were printed separately and pasted into the volume. In this copy (the finest and most complete surviving example), the engravings were also colored by hand. The text, written in the later fourteenth century by Giovanni Boccaccio, consists of a series of imaginary interviews with celebrated sufferers of misfortune. Translated from the original Latin into French in the fifteenth century, the book was admired throughout Europe.

Catalogue Raisonné Goff B-711(C); BMC IX 132; GW 4432
Description(Bruges: Colard Mansion, 1476) Folio; 290 leaves; modern armorial gilt-stamped brown morocco binding (Orrock & Son, Edinburgh, 1871).

Illustrations:
1) Boccaccio presenting his book to Cavalcanti
2) Boccaccio interviewing Adam and Eve
3) King Saul and the Dead Man
4) The Conflict between Fortune and Poverty
5) Marcus Manlius Capitolinus thrown into the Tiber
6) Death of Regulus
7) Death of Caisu Marius Apinates
8) Humiliation of the Emperor Valerian by the Persian King
9) Execution of Queen Brunhilde
ProvenanceSir Schomberg-Henry Kerr, Marquess of Lothian; January 27-28, 1932, Marquess of Lothian sale, American Art Association, New York, lot 46, to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 4, 1932)