Made for a lordly milieu, this codex narrates the stories of the two martyr saints. Both girls were horribly tortured after rejecting the attentions of persons in high places.
The codex is the richest illustrated corpus of the legend. Its decoration is composed of filigree letters and 33 scenes depicted in full-page miniatures.
Its elegant and ethereal characters are portrayed on a gold-leaf background, and move among splendid settings reminiscent of the late-13th-century Byzantine style.

Features of the Facsimile

• a complete reproduction in pure 23-carat gold on CartaPergamena of Ricc. Codex 453, Riccardian Library, Florence
• format 14.5 x 10.3, identical to the original
• 124 pages (the last 32 blank)
• bound entirely by hand according to the edging of the pages and the colours of the headband
• cover in blue silk velvet with gilded and silvered laminae and lapis lazuli
• limited edition of 999 numbered and certified copies
• commentary in Italian by the Riccardian Library Study Committee, headed by the Library's director Giovanna Lazzi

Why the Legends of Saint Margaret and Saint Agnes?

• available on special pre-publication terms until September 2008
• facsimile reproduction using the ArtCodex technique with pure 23-carat gold leaf
• attributed to an artist close to the Master of Gerona
• finely made, it was dedicated to Anna, a courtier enceinte, as an auspice for a good pregnancy: Saint Margaret is the object of prayers in the event of a difficult delivery
• it is the only Latin version in Florence of the originally Greek passio of Saint Margaret