Provençal chansonnier M.819 is an ambitious product from North-East Italy, dated to about the half of the XIII century. The manuscript is decorated with illuminated initials and marginal illustrations spread throughout troubadours sections. The one dedicated to Folquet de Marseilla has the widest and most complex pictorial comment, that suggests a different way to read Folquet’s poems: along with the biographical speech, the images convey a moralistic reflection on passional Love and its consequences, compared to religious Love, that will bear Folquet to a saving finale. The penitential feature of the marginal illustrations, stylistic evaluation on both part of the manuscript decoration, the later insertion in the manuscript of the allegorical poem La Cort d’Amor and some consideration about Love’s iconography lead to think about not only two different artists working on code’s illumination, but also two different clients that customize the manuscript in accordance with their beliefs.
