six stamps from the Notebook of drawings by Giovannino de’ Grassi (XIV c.), depicting images of animals drawn from life. The notebook contains 77 drawings and 24 illuminated letters of the alphabet, and is considered the most significant example of late Gothic Italian art.

From the Notebook of drawings by Giovannino de’ Grassi, kept in Bergamo, at the Biblioteca Civica Angelo Mai, the stamps reproduce:
€ 0.05: Kite, goldfinch and parrot
€ 0.20: Peacock
€ 0.95: Deer and leopard
€ 1.00: Horse walking and tied donkey
€ 2.55: Eagles in nest
€ 3.50: Page with deer

€ 0.05, € 0.20, € 0.95, € 1.00, € 2.55: Photo Mario Bonotto. ©2017. Mario Bonotto/Photo Scala, Florence.
€ 3.50: ©2017. Photo Scala, Florence.

The year of the birth of Giovannino de’ Grassi, multifaceted artist of the International Gothic style (he was painter, illuminator and sculptor) was uncertain. The first documentary evidence, kept at the Archive of the Fabbrica del Duomo in Milan, in which he worked as a sculptor and architect, dates back to 1389. He illuminated for the Visconti family, which dominated the political scene of northern Italy until the mid-15th century, some fifty sheets of the Offiziolo of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, kept in the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence. His Notebook of Drawings, with seventy-seven drawings and twenty-four illuminated letters of the alphabet, is considered the most significant example of late Gothic Italian art. The Historia Plantarum and the Beroldo are also attributed to him.

The first issue of the Notebook of Drawings, commonly attributed to Giovannino de’ Grassi, contains animals drawn from life in light watercolour pen, generally taken as a reference for the wall decorations.