Illuminated Bolognese legal manuscripts and Angevin Regnum Siciliae : the Advocates Volumen parvum in Edinburgh (National Library of Scotland, Advocates ms 10.1.4[i])

Carried by owners and traders, Bolognese libri legales spread widely over Europe, especially during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, including to the capital of Angevin Regnum Siciliae, Naples. There the ancient presence of four still-extant Bolognese illuminated legal manuscripts has been ascertained. This article focuses on a fourteenth-century legal manuscript until now not considered as for its likely early passage to Naples: the Advocates Volumen parvum in Edinburgh (National Library of Scotland, Advocates ms 10.1.4[i]), particularly the painted decoration that Robert Gibbs has attributed to the leading Bolognese illuminator of the 1330s–40s called l'Illustratore. As was already known, an ancient inscription at the end of the manuscript records the item's purchase by a man from Ravello. This paper presents the first complete reading of the inscription, identifying the year of acquisition as 1340 and establishing a Neapolitan context for it, which is derived from the mention of the dedication of the church of Santa Chiara.