Within the Influence of Giapeco and Bartolomeo
Caporali. Two Choir Books for an Observant Convent
in Montefeltro
The two Psalters Arm.I.26 and Arm.I.27 of the Biblioteca
Nazionale Braidense in Milan were written in a Franciscan
convent in the Duchy of Urbino in the early 1470s, as
the subscription of friar Pietro da Ginestreto at fol. 132v
of Arm.I.26 demonstrates: “Explicit diurnum. Explicit
sub anno 1471 15 mensis augusti Frater Petrus Genestreci
ordinis minorum regnante principe nostro Federico duce
Urbini”. However, the two choir books were illuminated
at least ten years later by an artist of the school of Perugia,
influenced by Giapeco and Bartolomeo Caporali. Some historiated
initials are inspired by the Florentine engravings
of the Prophets and Sybils referred “a maniera larga” to
Baccio Baldini around 1475 and “a maniera fine” to Francesco
Rosselli between 1480 and 1490. Other initials depend
on the series of the Life of the Virgin and Christ, also
attributed to Francesco Rosselli at the beginning of 1480s.