Dal cantieri al codice: semantica della breccia rosata nella tarda età sveva

This article examines the symbolic use of breccia rosata, a pinkish breccia, in Southern Italy during the late Hohenstaufen age, both in architecture and manuscript illumination, especially the Vatican copy of Frederick II’s treatise De arte venandi cum avibus (Pal. lat. 1071). While other birds in the manuscript are depicted within stylized representations of their natural habitats, birds of prey – especially falcons – are consistently shown on cubic blocks of breccia rosata. This visual strategy mirrors the stone’s architectural use and signals a deliberate symbolic association: the breccia functions not merely as a decorative surrogate for porphyry, but as an autonomous marker of nobility, hierarchy, and imperial authority. The alignment of architectural material and manuscript imagery suggests a cohesive visual language originated in the Hohenstaufen court. Furthermore, a later French copy of the manuscript (BnF, ms. fr. 12.400) omits this detail, indicating that the breccia’s symbolic meaning was context-specific and not universally understood. The analysis reveals how the stone’s visual semantics extended beyond materiality, shaping both buildings and images.