I came across this rapidly sketched ink drawing on the flyleaf of a 1570 Lyon edition of Sallust’s work on the Conspiracy of Catiline in @bsb_muenchen and I wondered if I could track down who was supposed to be the sitter in this portrait...⬇️ 1/4
Published by Antoine Gryphe, the text followed Aldus Manutius’s 1509 Venetian edition but the dedication to Bartolomeo Liviano d'Alviano was cut and the man portrayed resembled a pope sitting in the manner of Julius II in the trend-setting portrait by Raphael... 2/4
But which pope? A clue was given by the finials of the chair which seem to be dragons... the heraldic symbol used by Gregory XIII - pope from 1572 (just after the book was printed) to 1585 - but none of the portraits accessible online correspond exactly... 3/4
I did find a portrait with the chair but, as things stand, it’s valuable contemporary proof of an unknown depiction of the pope. More than just an amusing sketch, it tells us of the impact of Gregory’s papacy north of the Alps – & that the book was already in Catholics hands 4/4
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