The scientific analysis of the pigments and other materials used in A?s illuminations has already proved helpful in our efforts to accurately date the manuscript and, in this project, we also expect to more precisely be able to geographically locate its site of production. Two colour paints proved extremely informative in terms of their specificity: lapis lazuli blues and brazilwood pinks and reds. We proposed that the exceptional state of conservation of the lapis lazuli may be linked to the binder used and to a specific paint formulation. Two other colours (yellows) have shown great potential to be informative about the when and where: mosaic gold and yellow ochre, respectively. Briefly, the synthetic pigment known as mosaic gold may have been introduced in the 13th c., and we anticipate that recipe variations in its production may be linked to when and where it was prepared. Yellow ochre may also provide important clues, since it will eventually be possible to ascertain with some precision where it was mined. We also started a preliminary study on the writing inks that we consider important to further explore.

Therefore, our goal is to perform, for the first time, a comparative molecular study of the A’s miniatures (including the writing inks), never done before, and to undertake a holistic study of this unique medieval collection of the Galician-Portuguese Lyric, with a necessarily comparative dimension. In fact, A’s diversity of colours, accentuated by the presence of lapis lazuli blue and brazilwood pink, demonstrate the luxuriousness of the colour palette. Considering that Patricia Stirnemann has concluded that the illuminations are the work of one artist only and that these colours also display some specificities, they provide an exceptional base that will be explored for comparative analyses with contemporary Iberian illuminated manuscripts and European songbooks, as well as for the further analysis of pigments in Alfonsine codices, particularly the Cantigas de Santa Maria (Codice de los Musicos and Codice Rico). In fact, while some specialists argue that A may have been produced in the Alfonsine court, others suggest a Portuguese location (perhaps king Denis’ court), and we hope to find factual data that may clarify this issue.

Having already proved that lapis lazuli and brazilwood paint colour revealed specificities, never seen before in our studies on the molecular identification of colours on many different types of medieval codices, which stretch from the Romanesque bible (12th c.) all the way to the book of hours (15th c.), we intend to investigate why the blue of the Ajuda Songbook is so well-preserved. Its pristine surface and high chromatic saturation could be due to a different formulation of the binding medium; a better quality stone that allowed a finer grain, thereby leading to a better binder/pigment ratio; or a particular preparation of the support. Given the artist’s high level of expertise with materials, we propose that the binder used for the lapis lazuli blue may explain the unusual state of preservation of this colour. Attempts at reproducing this paint with as much historical accuracy as possible will be carried out during this project following a methodology developed by our team.

We further intend to reproduce the light pinks based on brazilwood lake pigments and to discuss the process variations as ways to propose a recipe time frame (in decades). This research will be anchored in the in-depth studies carried out by team members on the brazilwood lake pigments manufacture through the use of historically accurate reconstructions. Likewise, but on a more exploratory degree, for mosaic gold.

Finally, we propose the first complete study on the molecular composition of the writing inks, addressing both the metal ions quantification and the polyphenols characterization (also known as “tannins”). Due to the complexity of these systems we will create synergies with another project, focused on the characterization of Polyphenols in Art.

In fact, since D. Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcelos in the early 20th century, researchers have tried to build a stemma (a tree or family of manuscripts) linking all the collections, with multiple hypotheses, still up for debate. But the lack of factual data for all 5 surviving manuscripts make any such hypotheses uncertain.

As for the Italian copies (whose matrix was not A, since it only contains 309 love songs, far from the total of 1680 of all genres gathered in B and V), at the end of the 1970’s Elsa Gonçalves was able to make a step forward: re-reading one of Colocci’s notes regarding a certain «libro di portughesi» that «messer Lactancio» was about to receive from «quel da Ribera», she identified the two figures named in the note, the first one being the humanist Lactanzio Tolomei and the last one being António Ribeiro, a Portuguese cleric at the Curia.

«Messer Octaviano di messer Lactantio ha il libro di portughesi; quel da Ribera l’ha lassato» (Vat. Lat. 4817, fl. 204v)

More recently, Sylvie Deswarte provided more crucial information on this figure: that Ribeiro was no other than the secretary of Dom Miguel da Silva, bishop of Viseu, who was the Portuguese ambassador at the Curia for many years and also a friend of Colocci and Tolomei. This information strongly suggests that the sender of the medieval Songbook was almost certainly D. Miguel, whose biography and work are still largely unknown. In fact, after his forced return to Portugal in 1525 and following a series of confrontations with the Portuguese king, João III, in 1540 Dom Miguel fled to Rome and his name was erased from all documents and chronicles. Preliminary research from some members of this team has shown that the bishop of Viseu may have played a crucial role in the history of troubadour manuscripts. However, since this is a brand new path in the research and since part of his documents is still unpublished, we can only measure the extent of his role by means of a new and extensive investigation,  which is exactly what our team proposes to do.

We will proceed in two different directions:

i) the first, an internal analysis of the surviving manuscripts, searching for characteristic physical traces on the texts (graphic aspects, spaces, errors), but also on A’s numerous late notes and drawings (mostly dating from the 15th and 16th centuries), and on the spurious texts which are present in B and V (also dating from the same late period), some of them accompanied with the author’s name;

ii) the second direction will be an exhaustive search in libraries and archives, in particular those related to key figures of the Italian and Portuguese Renaissance that played a proven role in preserving Galician-Portuguese Lyric. We hope to find more factual evidence of their role, if not some clues on the whereabouts of the lost manuscripts. This work will also be important in a wider context, namely the network of cultural and personal links between European Renaissance intellectuals. Dom Miguel da Silva, bishop of Viseu, ambassador in Rome, friend of Colocci and Lactanzio Tolomei, but also of Tiziano, Rafael, Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Bembo and Baldassar Castiglione (who dedicated his famous «Libro del Cortigiano» to him), and whose life is still quite unknown, will be one of these key figures, and to publish his work (poems, letters) will also be a lateral result of this investigation. Other Portuguese humanists, such as André de Resende, Duarte Nunes de Leão and António Ferreira, will be the object of our attention. But we will also follow other leads related to names that can be found in some of A’s blank folios, like king Edward and Pedro Homem, among others.