The bottom border of the page decorated with the initial containing the Annunciation (fol. 15) bears, inside a tondo held up by two angels, the coat of arms of the Neapolitan Carafa family juxtaposed with another that has been tentatively identified as that of the Camponeschi family. On the basis of these elements, it has been suggested that the manuscript may have been intended for Vittoria Camponeschi, wife of Antonio Carafa (d. 1516) and mother of Gian Pietro Carafa, who later became Pope Paul IV (1555-59). The rubrics, textual and iconographic choices, and the importance attributed to St Dominic in the litanies, clearly reveal the Dominican use of the Book of Hours, which incorporates the intercessions and prayers with the Vespers in an unusual fashion in the Hours of the Virgin. In addition to the Christological scenes and the depictions of saints in the initials, there is also a miniature with the rare theme of the Virgin nursing the souls in Purgatory (fol. 79). 

The decoration of the manuscript, characterised by static figures, often with childish facial features, and by intense primary colours both in the scenes and in the decorated borders brought to life by putti, links the Book of Hours with the work of Matteo Felice,¹ active in Naples in the last third of the 15th century. The illuminator was also responsible for other manuscripts decorated for members of the Carafa family, such as MS. M.426 at the Morgan Library,² and MS. Ross. 74 at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.³ 

Fabrizio Crivello 

¹ Toscano 1995, pp. 87-118; Id. 1996, pp. 47-49; Id. 2004, pp. 215-218. 

² D’Urso 2019, pp. 106-107. 

³ M. A. Bilotta, “Ross. 74 (olim VIII, 16)”, in Catalogo dei codici miniati 2014, pp. 93-97.