Faint decorative sketches; site of a lost Sforza heraldic drawing
Verso revealed by restoration: pencil ornament and flower corollas; a heraldic device once here now at Windsor
This face of folio 86 was hidden before restoration and now shows faint, fairly elaborate pencil drawings of decorative elements and corollas of flowers, among which a few letters ('co') can barely be recovered. The editorial note records that a drawing formerly here, cut to a shield shape and pasted onto Windsor sheet 12282r, bore the old number 44 and depicted a heraldic device: two dragons twined on two batons crossed in an X, with the letters 'G M S' for Galeazzo Maria Sforza. No autograph text survives on this side of the leaf.
On this page
Faint pencil decorative elements
Restoration revealed light pencil work of decorative elements across the sheet, with a few barely legible letters recorded as 'co.' The drawing is delicate and only partly recoverable.
Pencil corollas of flowers
Among the decorative pencil marks are corollas of flowers, lightly drawn. They read as ornamental floral motifs rather than botanical study.
Site of the lost Sforza heraldic device
The note records that a heraldic drawing once occupied this area, showing two dragons twined on crossed batons with the initials G M S (Galeazzo Maria Sforza); it was later cut out and mounted at Windsor (12282r), leaving a lacuna where it was removed.