Leaf from a Cocharelli Treatise on the Vices: Acedia and Her Court (c. 1330): Art, History and Details

Leaf from a Cocharelli Treatise on the Vices: Acedia and Her Court (c. 1330) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This leaf comes from a treatise written before 1324 by a member of the Genoese Cocharelli family as a moral lesson for the following generation. The family’s dedication to education is seen in the use of Latin and the theme of the seven capital vices. We see Queen Accidia (or Sloth) lying in bed, bored despite all the distractions around her. The depiction of the precious fabrics shows an intimate knowledge of textiles from the Islamic world and is a testament to the flourishing trade contacts of Genoa.

Object facts

• Title: Leaf from a Cocharelli Treatise on the Vices: Acedia and Her Court
• Date: c. 1330
• Culture: Italy, Genoa
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: ink, tempera, and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Sheet: 16.3 x 10.3 cm (6 7/16 x 4 1/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1953.152

A detail from the museum

This miniature is noteworthy for its depiction of richly adorned textiles and jeweled headdresses imitative of the Islamic world.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Thieme, Ulrich, Felix Becker, Fred. C. Willis, and Hans Vollmer. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1907.
• Herbert, J. A. Illuminated Manuscripts. London: Methuen and Co, 1911.
• Mély, F. de. Les Miniaturistes. 1913.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.