Una proposta di retrodatazione del Codice Escurialense
Diana Di Matteo
Italian Renaissance style seems to be consciously flourishing in Spain through the grotesques of La Calahorra, which make use of the sketches of the Codex Escurialensis. The notebook was bought by the nobleman Rodrigo de Mendoza in Florence during his first trip to Italy (1499-1500), while the marquis was travelling from Rome to Milan in late 1499. To date, scholars have put forward the theory that Rodrigo de Mendoza bought the Escurialensis in Rome during his second stay in the peninsula between 1504 and 1506, an idea that is improbable, as proven by the documents preserved in the archives of the Nobility of Toledo, because between 1504 and 1506 the marquis was in Frascati as a prisoner and underwent a trial in which he had to defend himself against the accusations of Pope Julius II. These pages will highlight the necessity of backdating the manuscript from the itinerary of the notebook of drawings universally known as the Codex Escurialensis.