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Cocharelli: Cocharelli Codex (Treatise on vices ) (1330) Genoa

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Taken from : British Library Add MS 27695

 

Left the orchest of a party by a Tartar King; who is the symbol here of the vice gluttony. The African man is playing the cymbals (=zanj)


On top from one of the margins of another leave: a giraffe.
 

The codex except for the part in Add MS 27695 has also parts in British Library, Additional MS 28841 (7 leaves) and Egerton MS 3127 (2 leaves) and Egerton MS 3781 (1 leaf); Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, J.H. Wade Fund n. 1953.152 (1 leaf); and Florence, Museo del Bargello, inv. 2065 (1 leaf).

 

The original codex included two richly-illuminated texts, the first on the vices and virtues and the second on historical events during the time of Frederic II of Sicily (r. 1295-1337). The prologue to the treatise on vices and virtues explains that the texts were compiled by a member of the Cocharelli family of Genoa based on tales recounted by his grandfather, Pellegrino Cocharelli (fl. 1269-1307).

 

Left: Various exotic animals fill the three margins, including a long necked zebra, a bright red wild boar, a green and white giraffe , and a white elephant. Top left: cannibals.


From the upper margins of another leave: a herd of giraffes