Armed with deluxe illuminated manuscripts of his Latin panegyric poetry the Italian itinerant ‘poet laureate’ Johannes Michael Nagonius (c.1450-c.1510) visited all the major European courts at the end of the fifteenth century. Recipients of Nagonius’s panegyric verse include such eminent figures as the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I; Kings Henry VII of England, Vladislav II of Bohemia, Louis XII of France; Doge Leonardo Loredan; the condottieri Niccolo Orsini and Gian Giacomo Trivulzio; Giovanni Bentivoglio, lord of Bologna and Duke Ercole d’Este of Ferrara. The presentation of a deluxe manuscript, richly bound in crimson velvet, to Pope Julius II celebrating the pontiff’s triumphal campaign in the Romagna marked the climax of the poet’s career.
The presentation of a deluxe manuscript, richly bound in crimson velvet, to Pope Julius II celebrating the pontiff’s triumphal campaign in the Romagna marked the climax of the poet’s career.
In the first volume of a new series on Medieval and Renaissance Court Cultures Paul Gwynne traces the importance of this neglected poet’s oeuvre. Using literary, codicological, historical and art historical analyses, this sumptuously illustrated volume presents the poet in the larger context of the turbulent politics of fifteenth-century Europe.
