# Giovanni Colonna: Mare historiarum [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MINIATURIST, French]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Manuscript \(Ms. lat. 4915\), 455 x 325 mm ## Commentary Giovanni Colonna: Mare historiarum 1447-55 Manuscript \(Ms. lat. 4915\), 455 x 325 mm Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris This manuscript contains a collection of historical texts written by Giovanni Colonna \(c. 1298-1343\), a Dominican monk in Rome, a typical representative of early Italian humanism. His history of the world ended around 1250. The codex was commissioned by <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/f/fouquet/ursins.html'\)" href="/html/f/fouquet/ursins.html">Guillaume Jouvenel des Ursins</a> \(1401-1472\), chancellor to the king. It was illuminated by several miniaturists. The miniature on folio 149r serves as a frontispiece to Book IV. It was painted by the same master as that who decorated the Boccaccio manuscript in Geneva. Terrible events are unfolding in the peaceful scenery with the fantastic city veduta in the left background. The picture tells of events from Roman history, from the civil wars to the time of the Gracchi \(2nd century B.C.\). ## Related artworks - [A History of Western Saints]() - [Antiphoner]() - [Aristotle: De Interpretazione]() - [Aristotle: Works]() - [Augustinus Hipponensis: Quaestiones et locutiones in Heptateuchum]() - [Augustinus Hipponensis: Quaestiones et locutiones in Heptateuchum]() - [Augustinus Hipponensis: Quaestiones et locutiones in Heptateuchum]() - [Beatus of Liébana: Commentary on the Apocalypse]() - [Belleville Breviary]() - [Bible Historiale]() - [Bible moralisée, part I.]() - [Bible moralisée, part I.]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()