Cola Rapicano () was an Italian illuminator, working in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

during the second half of the 15th century. The earliest mention of Cola Rapicano stems from 1451, and in a document from 1456 he is described as an illuminator. Very little is known about his life. As far as is known, he only worked in

, where he was tied to the court of

Alfonso V of Aragon Alfonso the Magnanimous (Alfons el Magnànim in Catalan language, Catalan) (139627 June 1458) was King of Aragon and King of Sicily (as Alfons V) and the ruler of the Crown of Aragon from 1416 and King of Naples (as Alfons I) from 1442 until his ...

and his son

Ferdinand I of Naples Ferdinand I (2 June 1424 – 25 January 1494), also known as Ferrante, was king of Naples from 1458 to 1494. The only son, albeit illegitimate, of Alfonso the Magnanimous, he was one of the most influential and feared monarchs in Europe at the ...

. He was the head of a workshop producing manuscripts for the rulers; most of the surviving works in his style originate from the former royal library of Naples. Stylistically, he displayed a "strong antiquarian flair" and is recognisable through the use of white vine-stems,

putti A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and very often winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University ...

, and classical elements in the style of

Pisanello Pisanello (), born Antonio di Puccio Pisano or Antonio di Puccio da Cereto, also erroneously called Vittore Pisano by Giorgio Vasari, was one of the most distinguished painters of the early Italian Renaissance and Quattrocento. He was acclaimed b ...

Gallery

Elegantiarum Laurentii Vallae.tif,

Lorenzo Valla Lorenzo Valla (; also latinized as Laurentius; 1 August 1457) was an Italian Renaissance humanist, rhetorician, educator and scholar. He is best known for his historical-critical textual analysis that proved that the Donation of Constantine w ...

(copied by Pietro Ippolito da Luni) Geometia magistri Thome Brdvardini.jpg,

Thomas Bradwardine Thomas Bradwardine (c. 1300 – 26 August 1349) was an English cleric, scholar, mathematician, physicist, courtier and, very briefly, Archbishop of Canterbury. As a celebrated scholastic philosopher and doctor of theology, he is often ca ...

Quaestiones disputatae II.jpg,

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

' ''Quaestiones disputatae''

References

External links

Links to digitised versions of about several books illustrated by Cola Rapicano
{{Authority control Italian manuscript illuminators 15th-century Italian painters People from Amantea