De Aetatibus Mundi Imagines

More than an illustrated Bible

DE AETATIBUS MUNDI IMAGINES

De Aetatibus Mundi Imagines is a work by Francisco de Holanda (1517-1584) which is kept in Madrid, in the Biblioteca Nacional de España, under the reference: Dib. 14 -26.

THE MANUSCRIPT

This bibliographical treasure is an original of 178 pages, fully illustrated, with the technique of gouache, in laid paper with watermarks. Its dimensions are 43 x 30 cm. The binding is made of crimson natural silk velvet.

ORDO IMAGINUM

The manuscript hides a fine irony about our temporal reality. Eternity is the only enemy capable of overcoming time. Life is a transitory step, a world full of greys. In contrast, eternity is a life in colour, it is a perfect world. It is a book full of dazzling images, full of historical, archaeological, architectural, theological and allegorical references with a vigour and force that it is hard to believe they were made in the sixteenth century.

FRANCISCO DE HOLANDA, BY JOSÉ SARAMAGO

"Francisco de Holanda came to occupy forever a place next to the great Michelangelo. A small, tiny place without a doubt, but his, so exclusively his own that, although it is true that it is possible to speak or write with the utmost thoroughness about Michelangelo without it being necessary to quote Francisco de Holanda, the opposite is impossible since one can not speak or write about Francisco de Holanda without Michelangelo appearing to us in person, both in the words he says, the tone with which he pronounces them or the mood he conveys in speaking or in silence."

THE RETURN

Francisco de Holanda was in the Vatican by the hand of Michelangelo. Fate has wanted him to to return there 475 years later. Not him (impossible) but with a reproduction of his work given as an institutional gift of the government of Spain to His Holiness Pope Francisco I.
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