Background
Eufrasia Burlamacchi was born in Lucca as a member of the wealthy Burlamacchi family.
Eufrasia Burlamacchi was born in Lucca as a member of the wealthy Burlamacchi family.
She is known for the religious illuminated manuscripts she completed there.
She became a Dominican nun there in 1502 at the convent of San Domenico in Lucca. Burlamacchi died in Lucca in 1548. Manuscript illumination is the practice of decorating a text with ornate, often gilded, illustrations and symbols that act both as embellishment and as a way to reinforce the themes of the text.
The practice has its roots in Medieval European religious traditions.
The convent of San Domenico had a school of text illumination that had been developed and established through the years prior to Burlamacchi"s time in the convent. The gilding of religious texts had become a tradition, and for the Dominican nuns, the annotations were expressions of their call to practice charity, poverty, study, and evangelism.
Very little is known of Eufrasia Burlamacchi"s life, and much of her work has not survived the effects of time. The most significant primary source of information regarding Burlamacchi"s life comes from the Libro del Necrologico del Convento di San Domenico di Lucca (Register of Deaths of the Convent of San Domenico of Lucca).
There are few secondary sources.
The number of her illuminated texts that survive is small. The most significant surviving works are five books of anthems, annotated between 1502, her first year in the convent, and 1515.