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'Hesperides' by Basinio de' Basini of Parma, 1457-1468AD

Basinio Basini, also known as Basinio da Parma (Tizzano Val Parma, 1425 - Rimini, 24 to 30 May 1457), was an Italian humanist and poet. He was born in the castle of Tizzano, son of Vincenzo Basino, a military man originally from Mantua who had been serving Ottobuono de 'Terzi. After beginning his studies in Parma, he went to Mantua, where he was a pupil of Vittorino da Feltre, and Ferrara, where he studied Greek with Teodoro Gaza and most likely met Guarino of Verona.
In 1449 he moved to Rimini at the court of Malatesta. There he wrote much of the epic novel Liber Isottaeus and his major work, Hesperides, an epic poem in 13 books written to celebrate the deeds of the Lord of Rimini, Sigismondo Malatesta.

Collection: Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts
Shelfmark: MS. Canon. Class. Lat. 81
Type of object: Manuscript
Material: parchment
Page size: 343 x 237 mm
Author: Basinio de' Basini of Parma
Title text: Hesperides.
Country or nationality of origin: Italian
Place of origin: Rimini
Date: 1457-1468
Bodleian Library, Oxford

Text links to all images in 'Hesperides' by Basinio de' Basini of Parma:
Hesperides: 001r Ornamental frame
Hesperides: 002r The encampment of Sigismondo
Hesperides: 016r The siege of Populonia
Hesperides: 016v Alfonso’s fleet sets sail for Africa
Hesperides: 027r Fighting around Populonia
Hesperides: 037v Entry of Sigismondo into Populonia
Hesperides: 049v Sigismondo Malatesta's army prepares to decamp
Hesperides: 050r Sigismondo Malatesta's army on the march
Hesperides: 060v Meeting of Sigismondo and the envoys from Florence
Hesperides: 061r Sigismondo’s triumphal entry into Florence
Hesperides: 070r Sigismondo sets sail for Africa
Hesperides: 070v Sigismondo is shipwrecked
Hesperides: 082v Sigismondo lands at the island of Fortune
Hesperides: 083r The royal palace of Zephyrus on the island of Fortune
Hesperides: 091r Sigismondo in the Elysian fields
Hesperides: 100v Disembarkation of Alfonso’s army
Hesperides: 112v Sigismondo rides towards Genoa with his cavalry
Hesperides: 122v Battle outside city walls
Hesperides: 123r Siege of the tower of Vada
Hesperides: 137r The construction of Alberti's Tempio Malatesta
Sigismondo Malatesta's trumpeters have banners with two elephants, see statues of the Malatesta elephants and howdah with coats-of-arms and portrait, in the Cappella degli antenati
Sigismondo Malatesta's men wore the entwined initials I and S (S for Sigismondo, I for his mistress Isotta)



See also the 'The battle of Anghiari' - unknown Florentine master of the 1460s, Italy
Pilgrims' Arrival in Cologne, the Life of St Ursula, by Vittore Carpaccio, 1490-96
Back to Paintings of Italian Soldiers of the mid to late 15th Century






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