The Hand that writes - part two

 The hand that writes - part two

Lets consider this work and what it tells us about writing in Florence.

The Madonna is usually not shown writing and of course she certainly would have not been writing the Magnificat in Latin. If she could read and write it would have been in Aramaic or Hebrew. I her family judging from her cousin Elizabeths marriage was from a priestly levite background it is more likely she was literate? 

Now let us consider why a Florentine painter like Botticelli would show the Madonna or any woman writing?

What do we have reasonable cause to believe about this work .

It seems to have been commissioned as a private devotional and probably been in a monastery or private studio for centuries until put on market and acquired by a museum. It was not part of an altarpiece the rondo format being further proof of this?

The model may have been a Florentine aristocrat?

Now at the time Botticelli painted this while printing still existed in Florence illuminators and copyists wee still working by hand to make devotional books which would have included the Magnificat which brings me to an interesting possibility.

Botticelli could have seen copyists at work?

Were there female copyists / scribes in Florence?

Is it possible some upper class woman had the funds to purchase a book of bound blank pages and a husband of other relative allowed Botticelli to use her as a model? 

Lets look at the close up from my last post again.

What do you think if you have used a plume / quill for writing?

Is this realistic or contrived? Is Botticelli given general levels of literacy in the 15th century in Florence emphasizing how special the Virgin was or are we wrong and he is proudly showing us how literate and skilled Florentine women were ?