This is one of the six Florentine miniatures in the Hermitage made to decorate the codex of the epic poem by Silius Italicus (25-101 AD), which tells the story of the Second Punic War. The manuscript appears to have been commissioned sometime between 1447 and 1455 by Pope Nicholas V, whose portrait appears in one of the miniatures. Later it turned up in Venice in the church of SS Giovanni e Paolo, from whence it was transferred to the Library of St Mark's, where it is kept to this day. At the end of the 18th century, however, when the manuscript was still in the monks' care, the larger illustrations (apart from seven) were taken out to be sold and were soon acquired by representatives of the Russian court.