2023-11-30 11:04:20
On display at the National Library of Naples from Friday 1 December two manuscripts of rare preciousness entirely in purple parchment and written in silver and gold ink: a Ravenna Gospel (ex Vindob. Lat. 3) containing fragments of the Gospels of Luke and Mark, among the oldest purple codices preserved in European museums and libraries, dating back to the end of the 5th century AD, and a Lectionary (ex Vindob. Gr. 2) dating back to the 9th or 10th century of Byzantine imperial commission, as the signum seems to suggest crucis with the name “Basilius” inscribed, probably a reference to Basil I the Macedonian or Basil II, both of whom belonged to the convent of San Giovanni a Carbonara and, after various events, reached the National Library of Naples.
“Of purple and light. Ancient form and matter in the codices of the National Library of Naples” is the title of the exhibition, the first ever dedicated to codices with purple parchment sheets, the result of collaboration between the Department of Letters and Heritage Cultural institutions of the University of Campania ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’ (Teresa D’Urso and Giulia Simeoni) and the National Library ‘Vittorio Emanuele III’ (Daniela Bacca). An exhibition made possible, underlines the director Maria Iannotti, by the wealth of purple codices of the Neapolitan national library, always generous in giving us beauty and opportunities for scientific research.
On display are luxurious codices with purple parchment sheets, true art objects that testify to the fashion of the ‘antique’ codex and the revival of purples around the mid-fifteenth century, which from the Veneto to Rome, through the circulation of books, artists and clients also spread in Aragonese Naples (1443-1501). An exemplary witness to the circulation of artists and works is Cicero’s De Officiis (ms. IV.G.65), created in Rome around 1470 by the calligrapher Bartolomeo Sanvito and the miniaturist Gaspare da Padua for a member of the Gonzaga family of Mantua .
Five manuscripts are linked to the Renaissance season, and to Naples in particular. These are codices created in the second half of the fifteenth century for the famous Neapolitan Library of the Kings of Aragon or for high-ranking southern clients: the beautiful Breviary of King Ferrante of Aragon (ms. IB57), the Book of Hours (ms. . XIX.27), Plutarch’s Sentences in the vernacular (ms. XII.E.34), the Collection of grammatical texts (ms. San Martino agg. 86) and finally the Works of Apuleius (ms. CF.3.7) , a precious manuscript on loan from the Library and Monumental Complex of the Girolamini, the only example on display to bear an ocher parchment sheet (called crocea from the color of saffron, or crocus), created for the refined bibliophile Andrea Matteo III Acquaviva ( 1458-1529), Duke of Atri.
The exhibition tells, through extraordinary manuscripts with ancient, medieval and Renaissance purple sheets, the centuries-old adventure of a book product that has marked the history of Western culture, changing form, meaning and function over the centuries, but maintaining intrinsic symbolic values. The color purple, since ancient times associated with the idea of wealth and power and the figure of the emperor, with the advent of Christianity was linked to the sacrifice of Christ, but also to the sovereignty of the Church which would adopt the symbolism of power imperial.
The exhibition (open for free until February 6) also includes a section displaying literary sources documenting the spread of purple codes and the use and meaning of purple through the centuries; finally, it ends with a section dedicated to the dyeing of parchment and the dyes used to obtain the purple color in its different shades.
The exhibition is part of the ambitious multidisciplinary Purple – PURple Parchment LEgacy project, funded by the Ministry of University and Research, based on a close collaboration between historical-artistic research and scientific investigation.
Diagnostic analyzes were carried out on the exposed manuscripts with advanced non-invasive techniques under the guidance of Professor Maurizio Aceto (Department for Sustainable Development and Ecological Transition of the University of Eastern Piedmont), Professor Angelo Agostino (Department of Chemistry of the University of Turin) and the doctor Marcello Picollo (Institute of Applied Physics ‘Nello Carrara’ of the Cnr).
The scientific analyses, examining the technical and material peculiarities and analyzing the pigments, have made it possible to shed new light on the life of these codes, unique witnesses of the ‘purple thread’ that unites Antiquity to the Renaissance, thus ensuring the conservation of these true and own art objects for future generations.
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