Over the course of the second half of the sixteenth-century, the brilliant Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi’s sought to carry out an encyclopedic description of the natural world. Given the limits of the science of his day and the difficulty of obtaining accurate descriptions and specimens of animals, plants, and minerals from the four corners of the world, it is staggering how close he came to achieving this objective.
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.
A "distinctly theatrical text" by the most celebrated actress of the commedia dell'arte
Octavo: 14.2 x 9.5 cm. Two parts in one: [24], 455, [3] pp. Collation: †8, †4, A-Z8, Aa-Ee8, Ff4. (In signature †4 the first leaf is signed “†5” and the 4th leaf has the orphaned catchword “histria”, an error of the compositor, explained by the re-setting of the type from Combi’s 1627 edition to correct omissions in his 1634 edition.)
The first edition of Isabella Andreini's collection of letters appeared in 1607, four years after the author's death, edited by her husband, Francesco. In 1617, with the assistance of Flaminio Scala, Francesco published the "Fragmenti". For a discussion of both works, see below.
"Born in Padua to Venetian parents in 1562, Isabella Andreini (née Canali) would become the most celebrated commedia dell'arte actress of her century by the time of her death in 1604.
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, «è 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: Guilielmo de Fontaneto. Montisferrati, 1520
$5,800.00
Folio: 30.5 x 21 cm. Collation: aa4, a-c8, d10, e-k8, l6, m10, n-x8, y10 (final blank lacking.)
With the commentaries of Bernardinus Cyllenius on Tibullus; Antonius Parthenius and Palladius Fuscus on Catullus, Philippus Beroaldus on Propertius; and the Emendationesof Hieronymus Avantius on Lucretius, Catullus, the Priapeia, and Statius' Silvae.
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.
Dürer’s Four Books on Human Proportion - The First Italian Edition
Folio: 32 x 21.8 cm. [6], 143, [1] leaves. Collation: [dagger]6, A-L6, M8, N-P6, Q10, R-Z6
Illustrated with 110 full page (and four double page )diagrams for measurement of the human figure, printed partly as plates, with groups of tables, all included in the foliation. There are 39 additional diagrams in the text. The Venice blocks are close copies of those designed for the first edition of the German text (1528). This edition includes Pirckheimer's important biography of Dürer and a fifth book, written by Gallucci.
Mortimer 169; Bohatta, Bibliographie… Albrecht Dürers, no. 28; Meder, Dürer-Katalog, p. 289; Adams D 1055; Brunet II. 914; Erwin Panofsky, "The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer", Vol I, Princeton, 1945, pp. 260-284
Illustrated with 100 Woodcuts - In a Contemporary Italian Binding
The book is illustrated with a full-paged woodcut of Dante with three scenes (1. wandering in the “selva oscura”, 2. beset by the lion, leopard and wolf, and 3. led by Vergil.) The poems are illustrated with 98 smaller woodcuts. In addition to the woodcuts that illustrate the text, there is a vignette of Adam & Eve, God, and the Serpent in the Garden of Eden that appears on the title page and again in the woodcut border on the first leaf of the Inferno.
Adams D 90; Mambelli, Annali delle Edizioni Dantesche, no. 27; Colomb De Batines, Indice generale della Bibliografia dantesca I, 78; Sander, Le livre à figures italien, depuis 1467 jusqu’a 1530, 2325; Essling, Les livres à figures Vénitiens de la fin du xve siècle et du commencement du xvie, 529
An Account of a Medici Funeral – With the Folding Plate of the Catafalque
Florence: nella Stamperia di S.A.R. Per li Tartini, e Franchi, 1725
$3,200.00
Quarto: 24 x 17.3 cm. [4], 23 pp. Collation: π2, A8, B6; ß8, ß ß 4. With an added engraved plate.
An account of the funeral ceremonies for Cosimo III de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (d. 30 Oct. 1723). The ceremonies took place in the basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence on 16 May 1724.The volume offers us a comprehensive and minutely detailed description of the funeral honors and the decorations that had transformed the church of San Lorenzo. Chief among these was the catafalque built by the architect Alessandro Galilei.
Folio: 35.8 x 24 cm. Engraved frontis., XXXVII p., XVII p., 14 plates. (A-G2, A-D2, E1)
One of the most beautiful 18th c. Italian festival books and of the Piemontese Baroque. Both the festival and the book commemorating it occupied the combined efforts of some of the most important artists and architects of the period. The decorations of the buildings, the apparatus, the fireworks, and the machines were invented by the architects Borra, Massone, Piovani, Bernardi, Agliaudi, and Bernardo Vittone.
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.
