Book of Hours for the Use of Rome

This manuscript is one of the most pleasing books of hours to have been made in Florence in the mid-fifteenth century. It contains 278 folios with 17 illuminations by Zanobi Strozzi, which are masterpieces of the genre.

The picture shows folios 14v and 15r. The full-page illumination on folio 14v represents the Annunciation. On folio 15r the Nativity is depicted in an initial D. Below, six putti support a quatrefoil with the Adimari coat of arms. The Adimari were a large and prominent Florentine family, and any one of a number of them could have commissioned this book.