[Illuminated Manuscript] - Storia d’Italia Manoscritto unico - 1886

Hand-illuminated unique manuscript of the History of Italy – Ada Bernini, Padua 1886

Rare and fascinating handwritten album entitled Scenes of the History of Italy, created in 1886 by Ada Bernini, a pupil in the 4th lower class of the College of the Sacred Heart in Padua.

Format 22 × 27 cm approx, original red board binding with frames and geometric motifs in gold and a gold title on the front cover. Interiors entirely handwritten and drawn on laid paper, with 29 “scenes” (full-page plates) devoted to the centuries of Italian history, from the 1st century of the Common Era to the 19th century (up to 1900).

Each scene is centered on a golden heraldic shield with the century’s title and a motto or historical summary, surrounded by elegant ribbons and colored banners (in inks of red, blue, violet, green and black) on which are recorded, in beautiful cursive calligraphy, events, figures, dates and salient facts.
At the center of the title page is a stylized map of Italy within a gold shield, with the inscriptions “Cenni Storici d’Italia – Il Bel Paese – registrati per Secolo”. The pages are still protected by the original tracing sheets.

This is an exceptional example of a late 19th-century school exercise, executed with great calligraphic care and decorative taste, almost like a miniature code.

Of great rarity on the antiquarian market: a unique manuscript, signed and dated, coming from a prestigious Padua Catholic college, which documents both history teaching and the art of drawing and ornamental writing of the era.

Overall good state of preservation, with normal signs of time (humidity stains, wear to the binding and papers), but completely legible and of strong visual impact.