ABSTRACT
Of the books listed on Francesco Zago’s inventory of Francesco Novello’s library, only six manuscripts – four richly illustrated and two ornamented but comparatively unillustrated – have been identified. 1 The Carrara Herbal, Zago’s ‘Serapiom in volgare’, is the only medical codex firmly identified from the inventory. The other three identified illustrated manuscripts and the two identified unillustrated manuscripts represent the secondary focus of Francesco’s collection: biographies and local chronicles. One of the unillustrated manuscripts is the Cronica del Mussato per letra (The Chronicle of Mussato, in his own hand [?]), likely the account of communal Padua’s early history by Albertino Mussato (1261–1329), De traditione Patavii ad Canem Grandem anno 1328 mense septembri et causis precedentibus (On the Tradition of Padua to [the Time of] Cangrande in September 1328 and its Preceding Causes). 2 The Carrara family stemma (the carro) and the initials ‘FF’ appear on the lower margin of the manuscript’s first folio. The other unillustrated manuscript is the Libro del chataro (The Book by Gataro), likely the Cronaca Carrarese (The Chronicle of the Carrara), an account of seigniorial Padua written by Galeazzo Gatari (d. 1405) and his sons. 3 A partially defaced carro appears on the lower margin of the first folio of this manuscript as well. Along with similar representations of the family’s stemma, the four illustrated manuscripts contain portraits of the Carrara lords or representations of their individual heraldic arms that imitate, or directly copy, those in the fresco cycles commissioned by Francesco’s ancestors and their court intimates. 4
