When asked to do the Order of Defense scroll for Nicolina de Parre, the only specific request was that it be "Italian" and include badgers. I dug through my archives of images and found the below piece, which my research indicated was the title page for a printing of Augustinus' De Civitate De, which was originally printed at a the monastery of Subiaco in 1467.
My research unfortunately cannot date this specific page to that date (as books of this period had title pages left blank to be painted as desired). In fact, the aesthetic of the cupids and curling ribbon give it a slightly post-period feel to me, but there are, however, similar roundel-style pages in period, such as the St. Bernard Sermons Manuscript circa 1491 with miniatures done by Giovanni Boccardi around 1491-1492.
I determined that I wanted to create a Master of Defense livery collar out of the inner ring of the wreath, and thus a scroll was born. I had to keep the text very short, as this it has a very small area for the text to live. I took some creative liberties and added pearls and jewels, because...Italian. I know, not exactly right for this style, but I couldn't resist.
Images are taken at various angles and with/without flash so that you can see details in different lighting.
Overall piece is about 8.5x11" on vellum with Winsor & Newton gouache, and Finetec pigments.
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