Italian School.

the prominent 14th century Italian jurist who became the leading figure in medieval Roman law, also known as Baldo degli Ubaldi or Baldus Ubaldus (1327-1400), he was born in Perugia, where he studied law, gaining his doctorate in civil law by the age of 17, before going on to flourish in the field of canon law. He took a teaching post at Bologna for three years before returning to Perugia as professor for the next thirty three years. He went on to teach at Pisa, Florence, Padua and Pavia, where he was to end his days. Amongst his pupils was the future Pope Gregory XI, whose successor, Pope Urban VI, called Baldus to Rome in 1380, to consult him over his fight against the anti-pope, Clement VII.

This 19th century bust-length profile portrait, in traditional soft cloth hat and ermine trimmed cape, is captioned below in Latin with the words ‘Lux’ (light) and ‘Lex’ (law) either side of a blazing fire, inscribed below with the name ‘Baldo’, a further indistinct inscription lower left, possibly containing the word ‘medaglia’ which would suggest a reference to the portrait being derived from a medal, though it resembles closely, in reverse, the 16th century engraved portrait by Eneo Vico, published by Antonio Lafreri,

charcoal with touches of white chalk on buff wove paper, 280 x 230 mm. (11 x 9 in), slight surface dirt, faint spotting and minor handling creases,