FRANCO da BOLOGNA. – A 13th-century illuminator, mentioned by Dante (Purgatorio, X, 82–85) in contrast to Oderisi da Gubbio as an innovator. No certain works by him are known; nevertheless, he may be supposed to have been the principal, or among the principal, Umbrian illuminators who, at the end of the 13th century and in the early years of the 14th, helped orient local painting toward Giottesque naturalism.
BIBL.: B. C. K., s. V. in Thieme Becker, XII, pp. 364–65 with bibliography; P. Tossca, History of Italian Art, Turin 1927, p. 1154. Emilio Lavagnino