Item 10: Scriptores Historiae Augustae (The Augustan History)

This manuscript is emblematic of the Renaissance. Not only is it in its original binding, but it is dated and signed with his motto by the scribe Neri di Filippo Rinuccini and it is directly associated with the great Florentine patron of the arts, Lorenzo de’ Medici. His arms and devices appear on its title page. Albinia de la Mare has identified the hand of the humanist and poet Angelo Poliziano in a number of the book’s contemporary marginal notes. Poliziano was a friend of Lorenzo and is known to have often borrowed his books.

Scholars Bill Kent and Bronwyn Stocks also comment in the exhibition catalogue that this book was made for Lorenzo the year after the Pazzi conspiracy, when he and his brother were attacked in the Cathedral of Florence and Giuliano was killed. They draw attention to the fact that although the history of the Roman emperors is in keeping with Lorenzo’s pattern of collecting, especially his interest in Roman antiquity, he did not acquire many works of art at this time. They suggest that this particular book may express the patron’s desire for more peaceful and confident times, rather than reflect his earlier dynastic ambitions.

It has also been pointed out by art historian Cecilia O’Brien that the manuscript is not mentioned in the 1495 inventory of the Medici library, made after the Florentine republic seized it. The 16th-century papal seal inside the front cover may therefore indicate that the book was given away before that date, either to Lorenzo’s nephew, Giulio, the future Pope Clement VII, or to his son Giovanni, who became Pope Leo X.

I hope you have enjoyed this tour of some of the exhibition’s extraordinary works. If you are interested in seeing more medieval manuscripts, you can visit the Library’s free exhibition Mirror of the World: books and ideas, upstairs in the Dome Galleries on level 4.