Article

Some frescoes of the small building of the Oratory of San Pellegrino (Bominaco – village of Caporciano, in the Navelli plain) are illustrated and commented for the first time from a botanical point of view. In addition to a general commentary of the works, a description is provided of the botanical details and the landscape view of the two cycles of Christ’s Childhood and Passion. While the floral elements linked to the tradition are repeated, such as stylised lilies and acanthi, there are new floral motifs of some oval and heart-shaped plants that can perhaps be attributed to violets throughout their vegetative cycle until flowering and fructification. A comment is made about the trees portrayed with sinuous lines and thick crown from which the leaves emerge; finally, some forms similar to acanthi can be referred to plants of cabbage and cauliflower, which were grown in Benedictine monasteries.