ABSTRACT
In Francesco Novello's illustrated chronicles and biographies, the textual content clarifies the significance of the figural portraits and heraldic devices of the Carrara as manifestations of their invisible virtues and great deeds. Pictorial and literary representations of the lords' bodies accompany accounts of their actions - a juxtaposition visualised in the Sala virorum illustrium in relationship to the deeds of Petrarch's ancient heroes and described in earlier chronicles in relationship to the deeds of the Carrara. The content of one of Francesco Novello's illustrated books teaches its readers how to interpret the representations of the Carrara lords' bodies and heraldry as signs of the lords' moral virtues and good governance and as embodiments of their 'great deeds'. In Francesco Novello's library, then, the Carrara Herbal consolidated the themes of exemplarity and commemoration addressed in the chronicles and biographies and in the family's fresco cycles and tomb sculptures with the themes of health and healing addressed in his medical texts.
