Historia de gestis Francisci Sforza - 1490

The "Sforziade" of Warsaw. Illustrated edition - Faux leather

copia fedele dell'originale del 1490

ISBN 978-88-95847-26-9

The Beautiful Princess and the Sforziade of Warsaw

The collection of the National Library of Warsaw houses one of the four parchment copies of this work by Giovanni Simonetta, written in praise of the deeds of Francesco Sforza, the founder of the ducal dynasty of Milan, at the end of the 15th century. Probably brought to Poland by Bona Sforza, the volume passed into the hands of Chancellor Jan Zamoyski. The beautiful frontispiece is decorated by Birago, rich in symbolic, heraldic, and courtly references.

The copy of the Warsaw Library is that studied by Professor Martin Kemp of Oxford University and Pascal Cotte of Lumière Technology, Paris, who discovered and demonstrated that Leonardo da Vinci's parchment painting, "The Beautiful Princess," was sewn between its pages.

Full reproduction of the work preserved at the National Library of Warsaw, miniated by Giovanni Pietro Birago.
408 pages
35 gold capital letters
closure fasteners

Limited and numbered edition 318/1000 copies