The Trivulziano codex 1080, a parchment volume copied in 1337 in Florence by Francesco di ser Nardo da Barberino, hands down one of the oldest and most authoritative texts of Dante's Comedy, followed by the chapters in third rhyme by Iacopo Alighieri and Bosone Novello da Gubbio. The writing of the text is an elegant chancery, which is accompanied by the valuable miniatures attributed to the anonymous Master of the Dominican Effigies. From a graphic and decorative point of view, the codex can be inscribed in the group of the so-called 'Danti del Cento', while on the textual side it is confirmed as the primary witness of Dante's Comedy. Perhaps as early as the fifteenth century the important manuscript migrated to the Veneto area, where it was still at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Gian Giacomo Trivulzio probably bought it on the occasion of the Napoleonic suppression of the convents in the region.

This work, belonging to the permanent collection, is exposed to the public for conservation reasons only on the occasion of temporary exhibitions

The Liber Iesus or Book of the ABC (Trivulziano codex 2163) is a parchment codex containing a collection of prayers and short texts in Latin and vulgar prepared, as the so-called Grammatica del Donato, for Massimiliano Sforza, son of Ludovico il Moro, during the last five years of the fifteenth century. The elegant hand of the calligrapher Giovanni Battista Lorenzi can be recognized in the humanistic pose of the text. The decorative apparatus was entrusted to a main illustrator, identified with the anonymous Maestro dell'Epitalamio by Giasone del Maino. Only in two full-page miniatures (Meeting between Massimiliano Sforza and the Emperor of Austria and Massimiliano Sforza with Count Borella) is a second hand identified, Boccaccio Boccaccino according to some, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio according to others. The choice to dedicate a prayer book to Massimiliano Sforza, alongside the so-called Grammatica del Donato, identifies the two areas (religious and civil) in which the good Renaissance prince called to rule a state had to be educated.

This work, belonging to the permanent collection, is open to the public for conservation reasons only on the occasion of temporary exhibitions.

The Trivulziano codex 642 is a paper volume created in the early sixteenth century probably in Milan, for personal reading purposes. At the end of a miscellany of humanistic writings and without original title (later added by another hand), we read Dante's Monarchy, a work condemned by the Church and therefore copied with prudence for interest of study. In fact, it is evident that the scribe received a mandate to pay great attention to the correctness of the text: during the transcription he left aside the words that were more difficult to read, and then went back to revising the entire work, integrating these passages and correcting other errors. , perhaps even with the help of a second reference specimen. Thanks to the accuracy of his work and the good model used, the code is one of the best witnesses of the Monarchy, sometimes of decisive importance for reconstructing the authentic words of the author.

This work, belonging to the permanent collection, is open to the public for conservation reasons only on the occasion of temporary exhibitions.

The editio princeps of Sant'Agostino's De Civitate Dei (Triv. Inc. A 96) was made in Subiaco in 1467 by the German prototypers Conrad Sweynheym and Arnold Pannartz in large-format volumes, notable for the clarity and novelty of the typeface used. and for the airy layout on two columns. The Trivulzian specimen is distinguished by an elegant illuminated 'white girari' ornamentation, a conscious humanistic reprise of a late Carolingian decorative element, characterized by complex and elegant phytomorphic scrolls, here embellished by the use of gold leaf. The illuminator of this example has been doubtfully identified as a collaborator of Jacopo da Fabriano.

This work, belonging to the permanent collection, is open to the public for conservation reasons only on the occasion of temporary exhibitions.

The Pergamena Miniata 12 is a roll of parchment over five meters long, transcribed by a single hand in humanistic cursive and decorated on top by the Landriani Master of the Hours with three Sforza coats of arms surrounded by the initials in gold of the name and titles of Ludovico il Moro . The long text contained is the original instrumentum of the sentence issued by Ludovico il Moro on 18 August 1498 in favor of Ludovico Visconti Borromeo versus the sons of the late Giovanni Borromeo (Gilberto, Ludovico, Lancillotto, don Galeazzo and Filippo) for the rights to legacy of Vitaliano Borromeo. At the bottom are the autograph signature of Moro himself and the signum tabellionatus signed by the ducal chancellor and notary Stefano Gusperto da Cremona.

This work, belonging to the permanent collection, is open to the public for conservation reasons only on the occasion of temporary exhibitions.

The so-called Grammatica del Donato (Codex Trivulziano 2167) is a richly decorated parchment codex, which together with the Liber Iesus creates an extraordinary diptych of 'educational manuscripts' for the young Massimiliano Sforza, firstborn of Ludovico il Moro. The manuscript, prepared during the last five years of the fifteenth century, contains a grammatical text belonging to the literary genre of the Ianuae, followed by the Disticha Catonis. The writing of the text is an elegant humanistic book in which the hand of the well-known calligrapher Giovanni Battista Lorenzi is recognized, while among the illuminators there are some of the most famous artists of the time: Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis, the Master of Epitalamio of Giasone del Maino, Giovan Pietro Birago and the Maestro of Anna Sforza. The iconography of the so-called Grammatica del Donato, as well as that of Liber Iesus, is justified in the context of a precise political intent by the Moor, aimed at legitimizing himself and his own dynastic succession.

This work, belonging to the permanent collection, is open to the public for conservation reasons only on the occasion of temporary exhibitions.

The Trivulziano codex 1088 is a paper volume from the end of the 14th century. Perhaps of Paduan origin, it contains assembled together Dante's De vulgari eloquentia and Albertino Mussato's Erinis. The unadorned appearance of the specimen conceals one of the three most significant codes of the manuscript tradition of De vulgari eloquentia, whose history is intertwined with the complex 'question of language'. Rediscovered by Gian Giorgio Trissino shortly before 1513, the Trivulziano 1088 was in fact the fundamental tool through which the humanist spread the knowledge of Dante's treatise in Florence and Rome. In the following centuries the codex lay neglected in the Venetian convent of Santa Maria della Salute, until it reappeared in 1817 in the library of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, from which it was read with passionate linguistic interest together with his friend Vincenzo Monti, before reaching us through the collections of the illustrious Milanese family.

This work, belonging to the permanent collection, is open to the public for conservation reasons only on the occasion of temporary exhibitions.

The Bolognese architect, collector and historian Carlo Bianconi, secretary of the Brera Academy since 1778 and author of a famous guide to Milan published in 1783, collected about four hundred original architectural drawings and some engravings of Milanese buildings in ten large-format volumes datable between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries. In tome II in particular, he ordered the documents relating to the design history of the Duomo. This very important collection, now preserved in the Civic Historical Archives and Trivulziana Library, became part of the civic collections thanks to the purchase carried out by the Municipality of Milan from Antonio Vallardi in 1872. It still constitutes a precious testimony today both for the wealth of graphic documentation contained both for the original prefaces that Carlo Bianconi inserted in the body of the volumes, giving significant evidence of erudition and critical acumen.

This work, belonging to the permanent collection, is open to the public for conservation reasons only on the occasion of temporary exhibitions.

Leonardo da Vinci's notebook (codex Trivulziano 2162) is a small paper manuscript on which the artist made in the years around 1487 some drawings depicting physiognomy studies, architectural sketches for the Duomo and other buildings in Milan, diagrams of mechanical tools and war machines. Furthermore, on seven pages of the codex one can also see Leonardo's drawings drawn not in ink, but with a metallic point, clearly visible when the page is illuminated with grazing light; in some cases the engraving was then overwritten in ink by another hand, which only followed the original trace in an approximate way. A peculiarity of the Trivulziano codex is the presence of long lists of words, signed by Leonardo, written in his characteristic cursive from right to left. These lists document the artist's attempt to enrich his lexical patrimony by mastering terms derived from Latin, to claim the full scientific dignity of his work and to have more complete access to the writings of humanists and men of science. After the artist's death, the notebook was bequeathed to the pupil Francesco Melzi. At the end of the 16th century, together with other autographs by the master, the manuscript came into the possession of the sculptor Pompeo Leoni. In 1632 it was purchased by Count Galeazzo Arconati, who in 1637 donated it to the Ambrosiana Library, to later take it back in exchange for another Leonardo's autograph, the manuscript D. be part of the rich Trivulzio collection, which in turn merged in 1935 in the collections of the Civic Historical Archives and the Trivulziana Library at the Castello Sforzesco.

This work, belonging to the permanent collection, is open to the public for conservation reasons only on the occasion of temporary exhibitions.

In 1472, an important edition of the vulgar Petrarca, including the Canzoniere and the Triumphs, was printed in Padua by Bartolomeo Valdezocco. To the value of the edition, which constitutes an important episode of fifteenth-century typography due to the attention paid by the publisher to the care of the text, the Trivulzian example adds the preciousness of the illuminated decorative apparatus, attributed to the Maestro dei Putti, an artist trained with every probability in Padua, as the strong Mantegnesque component of his style seems to attest.

This work, belonging to the permanent collection, is open to the public for conservation reasons only on the occasion of temporary exhibitions.