Italian Manuscript Notebook with Literary Texts and Pen-and-Ink Drawings — c. 1800

Description

An intriguing Italian handwritten notebook, provisionally dated to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, containing extended passages of prose, verse and informal pen-and-ink drawings. The illustrated openings show flowing brown-ink cursive writing, decorative geometric pen exercises and small caricatural human figures. The author, exact date, place of production and purpose remain unidentified. It has not yet been established whether the literary texts are original compositions or copied passages. The notebook is offered intact as one manuscript item. The three photographs show selected openings; further detailed photographs are available on request.