Carlo Verardi (1440–1500), Historia Baetica
and
Marcellinus Verardus (15th century), Elegiae et carmina, Rome: Eucharius Silber, 7 March 1493
bound with:
Marcellinus Verardus (15th century), Fernandus servatus, [Rome: Eucharius Silber, between 7 and 27 March 1493]
This volume comprises two plays celebrating the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. The presence of the manuscript dedication on the left, and the bishop’s arms in the border on the right, illuminated in an Italian style, identifies this as the dedication copy given by Carlo Verardi, the author of the Historia Baetica, to Juan Ruiz de Medina (d. 1507), Bishop of Astorga and Spanish ambassador to the Pope. The presentation can be dated very precisely; it must have taken place between 7 March 1493, the publication date of the Historia Baetica, and before Ruiz’s election to the Bishopric of Badajoz on 27 March 1493.
Inc.4.B.2.27[1283], fols. [a1] verso – [a2] recto
Printed on parchment; illuminated in Rome, March 1493
As ambassador to the Vatican of the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, Juan Ruiz de Medina, bishop of Astorga (died 1507) was closely connected with the subject of the two plays in this volume, which commemorate significant events in Spanish history. Historia Baetica celebrates the capture of Granada in 1492, a battle which completed the Reconquista under Ferdinand and Isabella and ended Islamic rule on the Iberian peninsula, whilst Fernandus servatus commemorates the recuperation of the king from a near-fatal assassination attempt by a madman at Barcelona in December of that year. This deluxe volume, printed on vellum, was illuminated and presented to Ruiz de Medina by the author, Carolus Verardus, who also added marginal annotations in red highlighting Ferdinand’s virtues, authority, goodness and other regal qualities.
The performance of Historia Baetica included a song in Italian with four voice parts in praise of Ferdinand and Isabella. The music is printed here in woodcut and constitutes the earliest printed music for theatre and the first secular polyphonic music printed in Italy. The verses in this copy are elegantly written in by hand.
Not only are the authors closely related (Carolus was the uncle and patron of Marcellinus) but their works in this volume are too. The editions are printed by the same printer with the same types, in the same format, and they survive most often as companions. The first work has a colophon dated 7 March 1493 and, although the second work is undated, the Cambridge copy allows its production to be placed within a three-week period, from 7 to 27 March 1493. On the first page of Fernandus servatus is a blind impression of 4 lines of bearer type, which are the last 4 lines of the Historia Baetica, showing that the second work followed on immediately from the first. Reinforcing this evidence is the fact that the two editions share the same paper stock in another, paper, copy of these works at Cambridge. Ruiz de Medina became bishop of Badajoz on 27 March 1493 and yet both in the printed text of the Historia Baetica and in Verardus’s presentation inscription here, he is named still as bishop of Astorga. We may therefore date not only the printing of Fernandus servatus but also the illumination and presentation of this volume to between 7 and 27 March.
Only one other copy printed on vellum is recorded, and it is the dedication copy of Historia Baetica, finely illuminated for Cardinal Raffaele Riario (1424–1521) in whose house at Rimini the play was performed on 22 April 1492.
Essay by Margaret Lane Ford
