Stories of painted pages: forty stolen illuminated manuscripts recovered by Carabinieri on display at Palazzo Pitti

Forty illuminated manuscripts and scrolls illustrated by the masters of the Middle Ages and Renaissance are on display in the Sala delle Nicchie of the Pitti Palace until October 4.

Stories of Painted Pages. Miniatures Recovered by the Carabinieri presents to the public works recovered after theft that represent the great season of book production in central Italy from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries.

The manuscripts and illuminated pages come from Castelfiorentino, Colle di Val d’Elsa, Florence, Perugia and Pistoia, and are the work of such important artists as the Master of Sant’Alessio in Bigiano, who despite still being anonymous was the head of the most active in Tuscany in the last quarter of the 13th century; Pacino di Buonaguida, one of the earliest and most gifted of Giotto’s followers; through to Attavante degli Attavanti and Gherardo and Monte di Giovanni, internationally renowned book illustrators at the time of Lorenzo the Magnificent.

Among the most significant works on display are the chorals from the convent of the Minor Observants of San Lucchese in Poggibonsi, which suffered two thefts, in the 1930s and then again in 1982; the more than 20 volumes from the Benedictine abbey of Montemorcino in Umbria that, transferred to the abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore in Asciano, which were stolen in 1975; and the Office of the Dead of Leo X de’ Medici. Also on view are scarred works, pages from which miniatures have been cut, sheets torn from codices.

The exhibition was created by art historians, residents and doctoral students in History of the Miniature at the University of Florence, under the guidance of Professor Sonia Chiodo, one of the leading experts in the field. Their work includes a census of all the missing works so as to make available to the Carabinieri Data Bank an archive of up-to-date information essential for current and future investigations.

The exhibition is also accompanied by seven drawings by illustrator Vanna Vinci made interactive through touch technology: these introduce visitors to the places and protagonists of the stories the exhibition reconstructs.

“The Uffizi Galleries,” commented director Eike Schmidt, “have many collaborations and projects with research institutions, in Italy and Europe, to their credit. The group from the University of Florence directed by Sonia Chiodo is an example of practical application of the study, in this case with a very high civic value. We can say that it was a real ”laboratory of protection,“ in which the young scholars and their valiant professor worked alongside the Carabinieri, along with the officials and assistants of the Uffizi, achieving a result that not only results today in a beautiful and sophisticated exhibition, but one that will last over time. We entrusted these young people with a very delicate task, and they carried it out brilliantly.”

Image: Master of the Officium mortuorum of Leo x, Officium Mortuorum and Septem Psalmi Penitentiales, c. 1v (1516-20 post 1513; tempera and gold on parchment, 157 x 100 mm; Florence, private collection)

Stories of painted pages: forty stolen illuminated manuscripts recovered by Carabinieri on display at Palazzo Pitti

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