From one of the biccherne, or painted book-covers, used on town
accounting books from Siena, Italy. This one is associated with
an account book for the year 1479. According to Alexander van
Dorpmunde, it was painted by Pietro di Francesco Orioli, and
depicts the tents of the Alliance among Pope Sixtus IV, King
Ferdinand of Naples and the Republic of Siena. A variety of tent
shapes: circular with external guys, rectangular "cabin" tents,
and a half dozen simple, undecorated pup tents, which seem to be
a rectangle of fabric draped over two short vertical poles,
staked down at the ends, with the vertical poles staked straight
out. The ridge lines are straight, not swaybacked, which
suggests either that there's a ridge pole between the two
vertical poles or that the painter was idealizing the appearance
of the tents. All the round and "cabin" tents are decorated with
stripes, have golden spherical finials topped with flags, and
have rectangular doors flapping around inside. Thanks to Bob
Charrette, who found this