"This book centres around a Madonna that Andrea G. De Marchi suggests may be by the hand of the young Giotto and datable between the Madonna of San Giorgio all Costa and the Padua frescoes. The painting, which has been totally overlooked by scholars and even by dedicated photograph collections, is presented to specialists along with several discoveries about Gothic and Early Renaissance art. The book includes virtual reconstructions of a large, early Giottesque crucifix by the Master of San Martino alla Palma and of a birth tray. All this, and more, is presented in relation to the various stages of the rediscovery of the Italian Primitives, anticipating the first signs of the rediscovery during the Savonarolian period without, however, embracing ideologically preconceived notions."--Front inside flap of dust jacket.