Liber Iesus and Treatise on Grammar by Donatus

Liber Iesus and Treatise on Grammar by Donatus

Illuminated primers intended for the education of children are among the rarest manuscripts produced during the Middle Ages. This primer was commissioned by the Duke of Milan, Ludovico il Moro (1452–1508), for his eldest son Maximilian Sforza (1493–1530) and features numerous splendid portraits of the Italian princeling. The text consists primarily of two parts, the Liber Iesus and the Grammatica del Donato, an anonymous adaptation of the Ars grammatica by Aelius Donatus, a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric active in the mid-4th century and tutor of Saint Jerome (347-420). The work by Donatus belongs to the literary genre of the Ianuae and contains both grammatical and moralistic treatises. It is followed by the Disticha Catonis, a Latin collection of proverbial wisdom and morality by an unknown author named Dionysius Cato, who lived in the 3rd or 4th century. It was the most popular Latin textbook of the Middle Ages and was translated into numerous languages. Other elements of the primer include Italian poems, German dialogues, and prayers in Latin. The text was written down by a Milanese scribe named Giovanni Battista Lorenzi, whose skilled text has survived in many works but about whom little is known. It is adorned with wonderful full-page miniatures from various famous artists including Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis (ca. 1455 – ca. 1508), the Master of the Epithalamion of Jason de Mayno, Giovan Pietro Birago (active 1471–1513), the Master of Anna Sforza, and Boccaccio Boccaccino (ca. 1467 – ca. 1525).