Capponi-Ridolfi Prayer Book

Capponi-Ridolfi Prayer Book

The Capponi and Ridolfi were two historic Florentine families. Aristocrats by birth and politicians by vocation, Gino Capponi and Cosimo Ridolfi belonged to the group of moderate liberals summoned by Leopold II of Lorraine in 1847 to administer the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Conserved in the Biblioteca Riccardiana and inventoried under number 483, this splendid volume was a wedding gift, which recalls the marriage of two descendants of the illustrious houses in 1500 – Niccola di Andrea di Niccola Capponi and Antonia di Battista di Luigi Ridolfi. Of extremely limited dimensions, measuring only a few centimeters on each side, and yet of exquisite workmanship, the Capponi-Ridolfi Prayer Book is one of the smallest prayer books that has come down to the present day. Miniature painting in the late–15th century was an extreme synthesis of the arts that was approaching its dusk, but in this manuscript, Monte di Giovanni, one of the greatest Florentine masters of the time, conferred its tiny pages the same quality and breadth found in panel paintings and large books intended for public use. This is a prime example of an illuminated manuscript at a time when books that were written and illuminated by hand began to be replaced by those that were printed, but continued to display the extremely-accomplished artistry of the Italian Renaissance nonetheless.