numerous miniatures of ancient Codices, depicting scenes from everyday life, offer a valuable testimony to the working activities and settings of the time. In a miniature of the De Sphaera Codex (14th century), a money-changer (one of the seven Major Arts of the Guilds of Arts and Trades of Florence), equipped with scarsella or pouch, carries out his activity in a market. Domenico Lenzi, also known as the Biadaiolo or chandler (14th century) in his Specchio umano (Ms. Plut. 40. 12.) illustrates the work of the civaiolo, vendor of dried legumes. A miniature dating from around 1530 shows an Officina tipografica, an innovative printing technique that spread rapidly from the late 14th century.

€ 0.05 – Marco dell’Avogadro (15th cent.): Il cambiatore. From the De Sphaera Codex.
Biblioteca Estense, Modena, Italy.
©2021. Photo Scala, Florence – courtesy of Ministero Beni e Attività Culturali e del Turismo

€ 1.10 – Giovannino de’ Grassi: Scena di sartoria. From Tacuinum sanitatis (14th century).
Biblioteca Casanatense, Rome.
©2021. De Agostini Picture Library/Scala, Florence.

€ 2.40 – Domenico Lenzi, known as the Biadaiolo: Il civaiolo (14th century). From Ms. Plut. 40. 12 “Specchio umano”.
Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence.
©2021. Photo Scala, Florence – courtesy of Ministero Beni e Attività Culturali e del Turismo

€ 2.90 – Officina tipografica. From Recueil des Chants Royaux (16th century).
National Library of France, Paris. ©2021. Photo Josse/Scala, Florence.