Cennino Cennini's II Libra dell' Arfe - A Historiographical Review

Abstract

This paper presents a historiography of Cennino Cennini's II Libro dell' Arte (c.1400). It highlights the peculiarities and purposes of several editions, translations and principal commentators, and examines how the Libro was used as a source of inspiration and technical instruction by nineteenth- and twentieth-century painters. It draws attention to many papers and books that are not well known in the conservation community but deserve to be. It notes that Cennini's text has been used as if it was the only written technical source for the middle Ages and Renaissance and has been applied widely to the study of European paintings; recent scholarship has suggested that its contents are more restricted in time and space, and that it needs to be used more critically by conservators and others.