Frontispiece to a series of fifteen plates with a dedication to Leopoldo de'Medici: two lions beneath a scroll facing the Medici coat of arms
Not on view
The series of 15 prints are bound between cardboard covers and a vellum strip securing the spine on which is written in pen and ink 'Raphaels Leo Xth & miscelleanous Prints'. The spine is inscribed 'Vita di X'. The etchings reproduce the tapestries created by Raphael's apprentices and designed to cover the wainscot under the Vatican tapestries in the Sistine chapel and show episodes from the life of Giovanni de' Medici (Pope Leo X), who also commissioned them. At the back of the album are four unrelated prints. The accession numbers for the album run 2012.136.953(1-19) and each print is assigned a separate number within this sequence.
The inside front cover is inscribed in pen and ink 'Hon.ble John Trevor'. It cannot relate to the Right Honourable John Trevor Master of the rolls and speaker of the House of Commons (1637-1717) because the last two prints in the album post-date his death, but the inscription might indicate that the album belonged to John Hampden-Trevor, 3rd Viscount Hampden (1748 - 1824), a known collector of old master prints.
