I haven't paid a lot of attention to Italian manuscripts of any era: it's a long way from England, and my gut feeling when faced with Italian Renaissance design (which tends to hog the space in my head marked 'Italian') is 'too many twiddles'.
But my views are changing somewhat, with a newfound interest in foliage, acanthus leaves, and painting in perspective. And so today's
beautiful image is from Sforza Hours
Everything you could want in an illumination: bold colour, sinuous acanthus and traceries, gilded lettering, cute critters (note the stoat/weasel/ferret critter on the top of the pedestals), beautiful trompe d'oeuil initial with a pearl leaping off the page, and a Pelican, I think.
Plus a very pleasing hand - huge Gothic letters, that somehow do not look crowded, even on a tiny page - pages measure 130 x 95 mm. Amazing.
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