Appearing here is Dondedeo Bos – identified by the text – who made a name for himself as a pirate during the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204), stealing from the Venetians spoils of war looted earlier from Constantinople. He donated St. Helen’s reliquary of the Holy Cross to Genoa’s Cathedral, depicted here after reality albeit not facing the sea. The miniature was part of a lavishly illustrated chronicle, commissioned towards the middle of the 16th century by the Genoese Fornari family. The illumination is tentatively attributed to Andrea Semino (c. 1526-1594), who is known to have painted frescos in Gerolamo Fornari’s Palazzo in Genoa (1559). Another miniature of the Fornari chronicle, showing four other family members, is on offer at Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books.
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