Set of 3 Antique Chromolithographs, Thomassine Spinola of Genoa, 1882

A set of three original antique chromolithographs of the story of Thomassine Spinola from Paul Lacroix's Louis XII et Anne de Bretagne, published in Paris by Georges Hurtrel in 1882, sold together as one set of three sheets. The first sheet reproduces Thomassine Spinola, the Genoese noblewoman celebrated as the intendio, the chosen lady, of Louis XII, with three companions in black and white gowns on the harbor wall of Genoa, a moored ship and the towers of the city behind them. A scroll beneath opens the lament of Genoa on her death, and the whole page is set in a blue border scattered with tears. The second sheet reproduces Thomassine Spinola laid out on her bier while four women in black mourn around her, and Death, a skeleton in a white cloth, strides in from the right with his arrow. Gothic verse of lament fills a panel above and a pinned scroll below, all inside a gilt frame. The third sheet reproduces Louis XII in mourning black with a gold collar, walking with four courtiers through a tiled hall, set above a long scroll of gothic verse lamenting Thomassine's death. The scene is framed by two blue columns sewn with gold fleurs de lis under a gilt entablature.

Paul Lacroix, 1806 to 1884, known to readers as the Bibliophile Jacob, was one of the great popularizers of medieval and Renaissance France in the nineteenth century. Louis XII et Anne de Bretagne, his chronicle of the reign of Louis XII and his queen, was published in Paris by Georges Hurtrel in 1882, illustrated with fourteen chromolithographs and fifteen large plates reproducing manuscripts, portraits and objects of the time. The plates were printed in many colors with gold by the Imprimerie Lemercier et Cie of Paris, whose imprint appears at the lower right of each, and lithographed by A. Benard and Garcia Mincia. The color is printed throughout, not applied by hand.

The three sheets reproduce the three miniatures of Jean d'Auton's lament on the death of Thomassine Spinola, written in 1505 and now in the Bibliotheque Nationale as manuscript francais 25419. Together they tell her story from life to death to the king's mourning, the whole cycle of the manuscript. Beyond its historical interest each sheet is a rich decorative object, the printed gold and deep colors holding their own on a wall like a small panel painting. Hung together they bring the color and gold of a medieval manuscript to a study or a hallway.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Marked handling soiling along the edges of all three sheets. Foxing over much of the margin of all three sheets. All corners complete on every sheet. Brown marks on two of the three sheets.

These are original antique prints, not modern reproductions. They are three original sheets sold together as one lot, and the set is never split. This item is sold unframed.