Purple Parchment Legacy

This ambitious research project aims at conducting an in-depth investigation and a complete cataloguing of the so-called codices purpurei, i.e. purple vellum manuscripts, to increase knowledge of their figurative repertoire, meanings, uses and patronage. With a focus on Europe and the Mediterranean from Late Antiquity to the Modern Age, PURPLE will include a wide area of research in the exploration of the manuscripts, expanding both the approaches and the scopes which have been adopted thus far.

The project About us

Graeci vocant phycos….circa Cretam insulam nato in petris purpuras quoque inficiunt
– Plinio il Vecchio

Aurea purpureis pinguntur grammata..
– Godescalco

Our publications

F. Toniolo, Miniare la guerra: Nestore Leoni e i codici del primo conflitto mondiale

F. Toniolo, Miniare la guerra: Nestore Leoni e i codici del primo conflitto mondiale, in Atti e memorie dell’Accademia Galileiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in Padova. Parte 3, Memorie […]

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F. Toniolo, Double Openings Commemorating the First World War: Nestore Leoni and the Revival of Illumination in Italy

F. Toniolo, Double Openings Commemorating the First World War: Nestore Leoni and the Revival of Illumination in Italy, in Opening Manuscripts. Tributes to Elly Miller, eds. S. Panayotova, L. Freeman […]

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Kermes129_03_Purple_Ponchia_Toniolo_Zabeo-1

PURple Parchment LEgacy. Art History and Heritage Science for the Study of Manuscript Painting from Late Antiquity to the Modern Age

F. Toniolo, C. Ponchia, L. Zabeo PURple Parchment LEgacy. Art History and Heritage Science for the Study of Manuscript Painting from Late Antiquity to the Modern Age (4th-19th centuries) “Kermes”, […]

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