Early provenance can sometimes be indicated by a cartellino added to a painting in a collection.
2.
An example of the cartellino can be seen on the portrait of Edward VI, after Holbein.
3.
By the Late Middle Ages in Venice and elsewhere " pinxit " ( or other forms of " pingere ", in Gothic lettering ) had become customary, and was often found on a " cartellino ", " any form of fictive paper carrying an inscription ", established in Venice by the 1440s.