An Extraordinary Document: The Constitutions of the Accademia dei Lincei – With Notes toward a History of the Society, A List of the Academy's Members, & A History of the Invention & Development of the Telescope
Quarto: 19.3 x 14 cm. [1]-48, [49]-64 p. With a divisional title page.
I. "Praescriptiones Lynceae Accademiae"
Prepared for publication by Johann Faber, the Chancellor General of the Lincean Academy, the "Praescriptiones" articulated the society's founding principles and detailed the nature and scope of its activities.
Florence: Nicolaus Laurentii, Alamanus, 29 December 1485
$425,000.00
Chancery Folio: 28 x 20.8 cm. 204 unnumbered lvs. Complete. Collation: a-d8, e6, f-o8, p6 q-z, &8, )8, rum8. In signature a, a1 is unsigned and a2-4 are signed ai, aii, aiii. (a1r is blank, a1v is the dedication to Lorenzo de’Medici. The text begins on leaf a2r). Colophon on leaf 203v, verses to the reader by “Baptista siculus,” and register on leaf 204).
Annotations:
The contemporary annotations, while sporadic and few, give an indication of the interests of a Renaissance reader.
Quarto: 21.5 x 15.5 cm. [4], 8 pp., 9-10 ll., 11-127, [1] pp. Collation: π2 A4 B4 (±B1.2) C-Q4
FIRST EDITION of one of the most important eyewitness accounts of 17th-century Canada devoted primarily to the Huron Indians, but also with accounts of other groups, including the Jesuit author’s captivity and mutilation under the Iroquois. He also devotes 25 pages to a 1643 letter written by his Jesuit colleague Isaac Jogues (1607-1646), who was killed by the Mohawks.
Bressani (1612-1672), an Italian Jesuit, travelled to Canada as a missionary in 1642.
Alden & Landis 653/15; De Backer & Sommervogel II, col. 133; Walter, Jesuit relations, 43; Church 524; James Ford Bell Lib. B-407; JCB II, p. 428; Lande, Canadiana 57; McCoy, Jesuit relations 82; Sabin 7734; not in Eberstadt; Streeter.
Achieving a Synthesis of Architecture, Painting, & Scenography
Folio: 39.5 x 30 cm. 5 folding lvs. (1 letterpress leaf, 4 engraved lvs. (title, dedication, frontis., and portrait), 50 engraved plates divided into 5 series of 10 plates each.
First edition of this important architectural work, richly illustrated, by Giuseppe Galli da Bibiena. First edition of this richly illustrated work on architecture and perspective. The finely engraved plates show brilliant baroque compositions for catafalques, theatrical scenes, a series for the Passion of Christ in elaborate architectural settings, and the decoration of the Riding School at Vienna for the marriage of the Archduchess Mariana with Prince Charles of Lorraine.
Quarto: 20.3 x 14.7 cm. 93 pp. A-M4 (H1 is a cancel, -L4), π1. With an added portrait-frontispiece of the author, 1 folding table, and 5 folding plates.
Very rare first edition of this treatise on perspective by Guglielmo Gargiolli, the renowned mathematician of the Medici courts of Siena and Florence, and a correspondent of Galileo. The work is dedicated to Ferdinand II, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
Riccardi, VII, p. 40, «E de noverarsi fra i primi tentativi di distanziometria», Riccardi mistakenly records an earlier edition of 1619 relying on Targioni, Atti, I, p. 334, but the date is obviously incorrect in respect of Gargiolli’s rather obscure biography. See ‘Le opere dei discepoli di G. Galilei, Carteggio (1642–48)’, vol. I, a cura di P. Galluzzi e M. Torrini, Firenze 1975, no. 11
Continuing the work of Pacioli and Leonardo - A Fundamental Work on Perspective and the Graphic Representation of Architecture - A Book that Directly Influenced Palladio’s Representation of Buildings in his “Quattro Libri Dell’Architettura”(1570)
Folio: 29 x 22 cm. 195 pp., (6) ff. Collation: A-O4, P6, Q-Z4, Aa4, Bb6
First edition of the first systematic treatise on the practical applications of perspective, “La Practica della Perspectiva”, written by the distinguished Venetian patron of Palladio, Daniele Barbaro. Barbaro produced his own edition of Vitruvius in 1567, for which Palladio had furnished illustrations.
Fowler 36; Millard, Italian Architecture, p. 38-40; Mortimer 39; Vagnetti EIIb23; Wiebenson III-B-7; Berlin Katalog 4694; Kemp, Science of Art, p. 189. Adams B-171; Riccardi I/1°, col. 76; Vagnetti, Prospettiva, EIIb23; Gernsheim, History of Photography, pp. 7-8.
The Monuments of Ancient Rome Engraved by Piranesi’s Collaborator & Rival
Rome: Chez Bouchard et Gravier Libraires François rüe du Cours près de Saint Marcel, de l 1761
$16,000.00
Large Folio: 51 x 35.5 cm. VIII, 90 pp. Collation: [π]1, [a]-[c]1, A-Z, Aa-Yy1. With 73 added plates. Complete.
The French artist Jean Barbault arrived in Rome in 1747 and quickly became involved with the circle of Piranesi, with whom he worked on the “Varie Vedute di Roma Antica e Moderna” and for whose “Antichità Romane” he contributed figures for 14 plates “thus becoming one of the few official collaborators” of Piranesi. Barbault’s own views appeared 7 years after his collaboration with Piranesi.
Rome: Chez Bouchard et Gravier Libraires françois rüe du Cours près l’Eglise de S. Marcel, de l 1763
$22,000.00
Large Folio: 53.5 x 38 cm. [vi], 72 pp. Collation: [π]3, A-Z1, Aa-.Nn1. With 44 double-paged plates. Complete.
The French artist Jean Barbault arrived in Rome in 1747 and quickly became involved with the circle of Piranesi, with whom he worked on the “Varie Vedute di Roma Antica e Moderna” and for whose “Antichità Romane” he contributed figures for 14 plates “thus becoming one of the few official collaborators” of Piranesi. Barbault’s own views of the ancient city appeared 7 years after his collaboration with Piranesi; the present work on “Rome Moderne” appeared two years later, the year that Barbault died.
Oblong quarto: 21 x 27.6 cm. 29 unnumbered leaves, comprising 1 blank, 2 calligraphic title pages, a portrait of the author (aged 75), 4 leaves of text with ruled borders, and 20 full-page architectural drawings in brown ink and wash.
A remarkable, unpublished manuscript treatise by Domenico Bianconi, an architect and scenographer who worked in the style of Ferdinando Galli Bibiena (1657-1743). The manuscript was written while Bianconi was professor of perspective at the French Academy in Rome.
Venice: Venice: Philippus Pincius (Filippo Pinzi), 1510
$14,000.00
Folio: 31 x 21.5 cm. I. (Catullus) [158] lvs. Collation: A-c8, d-e6, f-s8, t-x6 (lacking blank leaf x6). II. (Martial) CLXI lvs. Collation: A-T8, V10 (lacking blank V10)
THE FIRST ILLUSTRTED EDITION OF MARTIAL:
The book is illustrated with 15 woodcuts, beginning with a scene showing five seated figures writing, the central three identified as Martial and his commentators Domizio Calderini (1447-1478) and Giorgio Merula (ca.
I. Goff T-372; Hain 4763; Proctor 5029; BMC V, 439; Literature: Julia Craig Gaiser, “Catullus” in “Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum”, Vol. VII). II. EDIT 16, CNCE 34895
“The Most Extensive Collection of Engravings of Sculpture Published in the 16th Century” -Thomas Ashby
Quarto: Engraved title page and 100 engraved plates. Complete.
The publishing history: According to Thomas Ashby’s classification of the editions, the first edition of Cavalieri’s book of statues appeared before April 1561. That edition, the “Liber Primus” consisted of only 58 plates, all of which were from original drawings, except for the plates of Pasquino and Marforio, which were copied from Lafrery’s “Speculum”.
This is an extremely rare Vatican “Directorium”, the yearly calendar of the Church of Rome, published for the leap year 1684, during the reign of Pope Innocent XI (1611-1689), whose woodcut arms appear on the title page. It consists of a calendar for the year, in which there are printed against each day concise directions concerning the Office and Mass to be said on that day. There are also indications of fast days, special indulgences, days of devotion, etc.
Quarto: 20.4 x 14.4 cm. [20] leaves. Signatures: A-E4.
This is a very rare first-hand account, commissioned by Francesco de’ Medici, of the elaborate ceremonies in Florence for the obsequies of Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1519-1584). It includes minute descriptions of the elaborate funeral apparatus built for the occasion. Among those who managed the artistic aspects of the spectacle was Don Vincenzo Borghini, "one of the guiding spirits of the Accademia del Disegno, an adept inventor of allegorical themes for the Medici court", who worked together with Vasari on Michelangelo's funeral.
Moreni, I, 321; Cat. Cavalieri, 148, nr. 721; Melzi, I, 285; Gamba, 2750; M. Schraven, Festive Funerals in Early Modern Italy: The Art and Culture of Conspicuous Commemoration. Visual Culture in Early Modernity, Farnham, 2014, p. 108 no. 42, and p. 279; M. Praz, Studies in Seventeenth-century Imagery, Roma, 1975, p. 551.
The first edition of Colonna's Rime had been printed in Parma by Viotto in 1538 and presented 145 poems of which 9 by other authors. The first Valgrisi edition (the first in 4to format and the first with the title Rime spirituali) had appeared in 1546 and included 180 poems. The important later edition edited by Rinaldo Corso in 1558 has only 158 poems.
The poetic production of Vittoria Colonna comprises two main characters: one profane, which consists of Petrarchan poems celebrating the love for her husband, the Marquis of Pescara Francesco D'Avalos, whom she married in 1509 and who died in battle in 1525; and one sacred, in which the personal pain for the loss of her husband is transfigured and becomes more and more universal up to a point in which it coincides with the pain of Christ on the cross.
M. Bandini Buti, Poetesse e scrittrici, Rome, 1941, I, pp. 164-171; Gamba, no. 1325 (“più copiosa e meno scorretta”); Edit 16, CNCE12833; A. Erdmann, My Gracious Silence, Lucerne, 1999, p. 211.
Ariosto as Operatic Ballet - A Rare Account of a 17th c. Italian Festival - The Feltrinelli Copy
A fascinating and vivid description of ‘The fountains of the Ardennes’, an entertainment that included singing, a tournament on horseback, and dancing, performed by the Accademici Rugginosi in the Palazzo della Gherardesca (Casa Rinaldi), on 3 February 1622 (stile fiorentino). The librettist was Andrea Salvadori, from 1616 to 1628 the principal author of texts for theatrical entertainments at the Florentine court.
Large Folio: 44 x 32 cm. [32], [4], 489, [29] pp. Collation: a4, b6, c-d4, A4, B2, C-X4, Y2+1, Z4; Aa-Cc4, Dd2, Ee3, Ff-Gg4, Hh2, [inserted plate], Ii-Zz4, Aaa-Fff4, Ggg-Kkk1, Lll-Vvv4, Xxx6. With 79 full-paged plates, some of which are folding.
This impressive production was commissioned by the Sacred Congregation of the Construction of St Peter's (the Fabricca), to justify the expense of rebuilding the church. It is presented by Fontana in seven parts: (1) Cose piu notabile della potenza Romana (on the historic importance of St Peter's - here a plate is included showing overlapping plans of Old and New St. Peter’s, as well as Nero's Circus), (2) Antica Basilica (i.
National Gallery (Washington), Mark J. Millard Architectural, IV (2000), no. 38, p.141-8; Royal Institute of British Architects, British Architectural Library ... Early printed books, 2 (1995), no. 1096; Johns Hopkins University, The Fowler Architectural Collection (1961), no. 122, p.105-6.
“Perhaps the First to Use a Keplerian Telescope for Regular Planetary Observation” (King)
A truly remarkable work, the “Observationes” has been called the first true lunar atlas (preceding that of Hevelius by one year.) Moreover, the work includes the first illustrations of the planet Mars made from telescopic observation (in 1636 and 1638). The first chapter includes a very early history of the telescope. Fontana claims to have invented both the “Keplerian” telescope (composed of two convex lenses) in 1608, and the compound microscope (consisting of two converging lenses, one functioning as objective, the other as eyepiece) in 1618; while his claims to have invented these instruments have been proven untrue, Fontana did in fact construct and use both of these instruments and with them he observed Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Moon; as well as fleas, flies, ants, bees and human hairs.
Carli and Favaro 211; Houzeau and Lancaster II, 1328; Riccardi I/1 467 (‘raro ed apprezzato’); Literature: King, The History of the Telescope p. 46; Clay, The History of the Microscope p. 9; Ashworth, The Face of the Moon: Galileo to Apollo, p. 4)
The First Illustrated Edition of Fulvio's Architectural Guide to Rome - With Important Additions by Girolamo Ferrucci
Illustrated with 93 woodcut illustrations of the architecture of Rome. This edition has been enlarged by Girolamo Ferrucci to include information on the dramatic renovations and new buildings constructed during the reign of Pope Sixtus V (reg. 1585-1590). A number of the changes, renovations and restorations undertaken by Sixtus are depicted in the woodcuts, which were prepared specifically for this this edition.
Cicognara 3741; Schudt 601; Rossetti, Rome: The Guide Books, G 480; Borroni 7914/6; Fossati-Bellani 900; Platneriana 296; Choix, 16979; Adams F 1155; Philip Jacks in Dictionary of Art XI.838 & his "The Antiquarian and the myth of antiquity", pp. 180-84; R Weiss, "Andrea Fulvio antiquario romano 1470-1527", Ann. Scuol. Sup. Pisa ii.28 (1959) 1-44, & "Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity" (1969), 86-9 & 178-9.
FIRST EDITION of Giraldi's most important contribution to literary criticism and his most lasting influence on dramatic theory and practice. Almost all the main issues in Renaissance dramatic criticism are examined somewhere in his various works and prefaces.
Giraldi rejected the Greek arrangement of plays into prologue, episodes, and choral odes and returned to the five acts of the Roman theatre.
Edit16, CNCE 21262; Adams, G-701; Universal STC, no. 833280; S. Bongi, Annali di Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari da Trino di Monferrato, stampatore a Venezia, (Roma, 1880-1897), I, pp. 427-429; B. Weinberg, A History of Literary Criticism in the Italian Renaissance, (Chicago, 1961), p. 1129.
