Petrarch Francesco Petrarca 13041374 worked over many years on his long historical text about the Lives of ancient Roman military heroes De viris illustribus On Famous Men. Left unfinished at his death the text was completed by 1379 by Petrarchs colleague Lombardo della Seta. Within a decade De viris illustribus was translated into Italian and in 1476 the Libro degli uomini famosi was printed in Poiano outside of Verona by the eccentric humanist and scribe Felice Feliciano 143314791480. The edition includes a peculiar feature preceding each of the Lives is a page on which is printed an interlace woodcut border within which however no image appears. The present book surveys the handillumination of twenty surviving copies of Felices edition in order to investigate the Renaissance fascination with the classical past the artistic traditions of representing Uomini famosi the technical problems of illustrating books with woodcuts and the fortuna of the 1476 edition. Two copies contain sequences of heroes painted within the woodcut borders these heroes provide evidence for reconstructing the appearance of the lost frescoes of famous men painted at the end of Petrarchs lifetime in the Carrara palace in Padua. The handillumination of other copies can be assigned to miniaturists working in Venice Verona Ferrara Florence Rome and elsewhere suggesting Felice Felicianos widereaching efforts to market the volume. The importance of studying copyspecific features in Renaissance printed books is further documented by the thirtytwo colour plates and over ninety blackandwhite figures.