This ambitious work collects all known documents related to the painter Titian dating from his era.

Titian was one of the most famous, successful, and long-lived of the Renaissance painters. Much of his output was for rulers or institutions whose archives have been largely preserved, and many of his family papers have also survived. Titian: Sources and Documents includes all known documents relating to Titian and his work dating from his lifetime, along with all known references to Titian in contemporaneous publications. The relevant section of each text is transcribed in full, preceded by a short summary in English, with extensive annotation and, where necessary, a commentary. The collection also includes all biographical material published before 1700 and all other texts that could realistically be thought to reflect first- or second-hand anecdotal information about him. The particular strengths and limitations of the principal early printed sources and the circumstances in which they were produced are discussed in a substantial introduction, which also includes an overview of the main archival collections consulted in the preparation of the book.

Charles Hope is former director of the Warburg Institute in London. He has published extensively on fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Italian art.