Anna De Floriani's research, carried on since late 1970s, the catalogue of Italian manuscripts of the Bibliothe`que nationale de France, Paris, edited in 1984, and an article by Marie-The“re`se Gousset on puzzle initials in Gothic Genoese books, published in 'Arte medievale' in 1988, represent the beginning of a critical history that has been able to reconstruct the role of Genoa as one of the most active centres of book production between the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth century. Recent studies have enriched this context, attributing to Genoa medical and scientific treatises, and an important but complex group of late thirteenth-century manuscripts, which include the Bestiaire d'Amour by Richard de Fournival, the Tre“sor by Brunetto Latini, and Arthurian legends, probably the result of a collaboration between Genoese and Pisan scribes and illuminators, the latter present in the Liguria city as prisoners of war after the battle of the Meloria (1284).
Starting from this point and taking into account artistic and stylistic evidence from books which are sure to have been produced in Genoa in these years, this article intends to demonstrate the Genoese origin of a late thirteenth-century manuscript preserved in the Eisenbibliothek in Schlatt, ms. 20, a collection of philosophical treatises, characterized by a rich illustration composed of historiated, decorated and puzzle initials, and interesting iconographical solutions.