Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> The The Library is located on the premises of the old canonical residence next to the Cathedral of Siena. Its construction was ordered around 1492 by Cardinal Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini Archbishop of Siena in memory of his maternal uncle Pius II who had died twenty-eight years before. The purpose of the building was to provide worthy accommodations for the outstanding library which had fondly been accumulated by the great pontiff and humanist. The construction date appears in connection with a number of payments including the “marble block for the windows made by the stone cutter Francesco di Domenico” and the door along with other things. It was on the materials necessary for the completion of these commissions that the Cardinal obtained a tax exemption from the city on 11 May 1495. As soon as the shell of the Library was finished the interior vaulting was probably ornamented simply with a band of dark leaves on a white ground framed in red along the ribs while the flat surfaces would have been decorated with gold stars on blue. The decoration of this vaulting would then have been analogous to that of the passageway leading from the Cathedral to the Library. (LL)