The Codex Coner, now in the collection of the Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, is an extraordinary album of architectural drawings from the sixteenth century. The drawings, by the Florentine draughtsman Bernardo della Volpaia (c.1475–1521/22), were highly prized in their day and many were copied by Michelangelo. Most of the drawings in the Codex Coner represent ancient Roman monuments, and this work has long been an important point of reference in the Census database.
Now, a new catalogue of the Codex Coner has been published online. This resource, the first catalogue of these important Italian Renaissance drawings since Thomas Ashby’s in 1904, was recently completed by Professors Paul Davies (University of Reading) and David Hemsoll (University of Birmingham).
The entries can now be consulted via the website of the Soane Museum, and Professor Davies and Hemsoll will also publish their catalogue of the Codex Coner as a book.
In 2011, the Census project provided funding for new photographs by Ardon Bar-Hama of the Codex Coner, which are now present both in the online catalogue and in the Census database.
To explore the online catalogue of the Codex Coner, click here.
