Codex Resta

When Giorgio Varsari wrote his “Lives of the Artists” in 1550, he also began collecting original drawings from the hands of the various artists to illustrate his biographies. This book of drawings was a bound volume in which the entire collection was pasted into its pages rather than displayed in individual picture frames. It did not survive intact.

A century later, the great collector and connoisseur Padre Sebastiano Resta (1635-1714) is reported to have amassed 3,500 drawings, organized into 30 bound volumes which he intended to sell in order to donate the proceeds to charity.

One of his most celebrated, the “Codex Resta,” was considered lost until its mysterious rediscovery in the Public Library of Palermo a decade ago. Because of its emphasis on Roman ornamentation, it is also known as “ The Book of Arabesques.”