Among the intermediate class are the copies of
the Rationale of Durandus, one of these being in the British Museum
(Add. 31032). Now and then a fine Missal, like the "Stefaneschi," or the
Munich Missal of 1374, which may be referred to as being one of the
models of the school of Prag. On the whole, perhaps, the law books are
more numerous than liturgical ones, and are referable generally to
Bologna or Padua. The name of Nicholaus of Bologna occurs more than once
in these books. A book of offices of the Virgin, by Nicholaus, is now at
Kremsm?nster, and a New Testament, dated 1328, in the Vatican. Tommaso
di Modena, another distinguished Italian illuminator, also had much to
do with altering the style of the artists who worked for Charles IV. at
Prag. Some of his work, or work presumed to be his, is still to be seen
in the Bohemian capital. Next to these Bolognese MSS. we may place those
of Florence--copies of the Divina Commedia and the Triumphs and Sonnets
of Petrarch, which, with historians and copies or translations of the
classics, chiefly occupied the illuminators of Florence and Siena, with
one notable exception. Whoever has visited any of the North Italian
cities cannot fail to have noticed and admired the magnificent
choir-books still to be seen in the cathedrals and cathedral libraries.
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