Green Parrots

Around 1450, a talented young German painter showed up in Italy and got work as a miniaturist. We know him solely as Gioacchino di Giovanni, although he seems to have been born in Rottenburg an der Laaber, Bavaria (not Rothenburg ob der Tauber as claimed by the Grove Dictionary).

He must have been a big fellow, as he also went by the name Gigantibus. He also evidently had a thing about green parrots (I'm not making this up). Here's one that flew into his work in ms. King's 2 at the British Library:

The Vatican Library has just digitized his work in a Nicholas de Lyra manuscript, and of course there is a signature green parrot in there:

It's one of just six manuscripts digitized in the past week. The list:

1. Chig.L.VI.210, an Italian translation of the Treasury of Brunetto Latini, with several fine diagrams:
   
2. Ross.125.pt.2 (Upgraded to HQ), Breviary with this throne of heaven: 
   
3. Urb.lat.1150,

   I have been indexing the Latin translation of Aristotle's Historia Animalium over the last six months, so kudos to the brave indexer of Quintilian - 70 pages remained blank, but I understand why he did not start a new project. H/T @JBPiggin https://t.co/DNpC09H2xu pic.twitter.com/V6qfglDZiB

   — Pieter Beullens (@LatinAristotle) February 16, 2019

4. Vat.lat.2415,
5. Vat.lat.4215, Nicholas of Lyra: here is God making the trees:
   

   Postilla super Biblia by Nicholas of Lyra (c. 1270 -1349) with amazing #illuminations by Gioacchino di Giovanni (also known as Gigantibus or De Gigante, Rottenburg an der Laaber, 15th cent.) among the #LatestDigitizedManuscripts - https://t.co/7hTAWF7EhB#miniatures #manuscripts pic.twitter.com/3Z8f7EtSy6

   — Digita Vaticana (@DigitaVaticana) February 13, 2019

6. Vat.lat.4650,

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 196. Thanks to @gundormr for harvesting. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.