On the 50th anniversary of its foundation, Il Ponte Casa d'Aste is pleased to present to the public an object that is both a symbol of artistic excellence and a rare and precious historical document of the Italian Renaissance: the Santini Codex.
This sublime Urbinate manuscript from the 15th century, recognized as Italian cultural heritage by the State in 2012, will be auctioned in the Antique Books and Livres d'Artistes sale on February 27, 2024. An extraordinary opportunity to connect with a cultural treasure of immeasurable value and explore its evocative contents, in addition to the remarkable composition on parchment.
Masterfully illustrated and produced at the court of the Montefeltro and Della Rovere families, with the aim of glorifying their hegemony in the field of civil and military machines, it has reached our days, spanning over five centuries, preserved in exceptional condition in its rare and elegant contemporary binding.
The Santini Codex is still the subject of study by numerous experts who, while uncertain about the definitive attribution, unanimously acknowledge it among the earliest evidence of a scientific approach to the study of engineering and mechanics, a branch of research accessible only to a selected circle of intellectuals at the time, including the names of great masters such as the Sienese Mariano di Jacopo, better known as Taccola, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, who in Urbino conceived the preparatory drawings for the seventy-two panels of the "Frieze of the Art of War," and the legendary Leonardo da Vinci.
----------