ATTAVANTI, ATTAVANTE degli. - Illuminator, born perhaps in 1452 at Castelfiorentino, died no later than 1517. A large number of works by him exist, nearly all signed. Of the latter, the oldest is the missal of the bishop of Dol, of 1483, now in the cathedral of Lyon; these are followed by the missal for Mattia Corvino of 1485; the De nuptiis Mercurii et Philosophiae of Marziano Capella in the Marciana at Venice, which is his finest work; the Epistolae Aur. Augustini, in Vienna (Hofbibl.); the Breviarium divi Hieronymi in Psalmos David at the National Library in Paris; and five other codices in the Estense Library at Modena. Unsigned, but certainly his, are the two antiphonaries of Prato cathedral of 1505; the Laurenziano Gradual at S. Maria degli Angeli of 1505; two Laurenziano antiphonaries in the museum of the Opera del Duomo in Florence of 1508; the Roman Breviary of Mattia Corvino and, above all, the famous Urbinate Bible of Duke Federico, written in the workshop of Vespasiano da Bisticci and illuminated in 1476–78, both in the Vatican Library.
In style he adhered to the Tuscan tradition, closely following Verrocchio and even more Domenico Ghirlandaio, from whom he also copied several scenes, though lacking force and dramatic effect. Nevertheless, on account of his gifts as a colourist and composer, he is considered among the greatest illuminators of the Renaissance. - See Pl. XXVIII.