Book of Hours of the Sforza – Limited Numbered Edition Facsimile Published 1993 by Faksimile Verlag Luzern, in a limited edition of 980. (This is copy XLIX) Facsimile (Vol. I) of Add. MS 34294 from the British Library, London, with red velvet binding and two metal clasps (93mm x 131mm, 80 pages), together with a commentary (in German/English) by Mark L. Evans. Both in a very beautiful velvet-covered decorative box with gold embossing. (20.5 x 17 cm) Condition: As New A story like a thriller: Started by Giovan Pietro Birago, then stolen and completed by Gerard Horenbout and separated into four individual volumes because of its over 200 miniatures. Hardly any other handwritten codex from the Middle Ages compares to the Sforza's breathtaking Book of Hours. Long odysseys brought the precious manuscript to the most important ruling houses of the Renaissance. Its incomparably high-quality and precious illumination captivates each of its awestruck viewers. This manuscript is a work whose delightful, opulent design is appropriate to the pre-eminent position of the Sforza family. Alongside the Medici, the Sforza family had a decisive influence on the artistic life of the Italian Renaissance as patrons and patrons of the arts. In addition to 203 full-page miniatures, fantastic bordures in an infinite variety of colours and lavish gold ornamentation adorn the work in abundance. The facsimile edition is published, entirely in accordance with the original, in the form of the four volumes in an edition of 980 numbered copies.