Renaissance Humanism and Early Modern

Venice: Nicolò Pezzana, 1673. 12mo (15 cm); 335, [1] pages. Half-title (A1) not present. Typographic and woodcut ornaments. Bound in contemporary calf, with gilt-tooled decoration on spine. Leather title label and old paper shelf label on spine. Binding worn but sound and entire. Pages thumbed, with tanning toward the edges, but in very good condition over all. Title page frayed at fore edge, not affecting text. Early ownership stamp on title page. References: Libreria Vinciana 2282; BL Italian 17th century, 4. All of the defining characteristics of baroque poetry are shown to their best advantage in this collection by Marino's friend and follower. Several of Achillini's poems (according to a note at the end of the text) had been erroneously attributed to Marino. This collection also includes an essay, and Achillini's correspondence (including the letter on the plague that Manzoni incorporated sarcastically into I Promessi Sposi, and the description of a monk that Croce called "not only significant, but beautiful. more information

London: G.T. Masi, 1780. 17 cm; xxxxiii, 238 pages. Engraved title page; engraved portrait. Bound in 19th-century marbled wraps, titled in manuscript on spine. Untrimmed. Wraps frayed at edges, joints, spine ends, and over cords. Some pages yellowed. Eighteenth-century London edition of Virgilian imitations by Luigi Alamanni (1495-1556). Alamanni wrote his elegant "La Coltivazione" while in exile for anti-Medici leanings. The "Tuscan Epigrams" comprise the last 30 pages. more information

Paris: Isidore Liseux, 1889. 20cm; 6 volumes. Title pages printed in red and black. Portrait frontispiece. Bound in publisher's wraps. Untrimmed. Spines peeling. Some foxing on wraps. One quire held weakly in volume 1. Lively translation of Aretino's pornographic satire on high-minded Renaissance philosophies of love. Aretino bursts in on Plato's Symposium with discussions of a more familiar sort of love. more information

Venice: Stefano Orlandini, 1730. References: Agnelli Ravegnani I,3 ("Bella e pregevole edizione"); Morazzoni 213; Gamba 60; Brunet I,437; Graesse I,199; Melzi 173. Folio (39 cm); 2 volumes: [50], 576; [4] 400 pages, and 52 engraved plates. Half title present, first title printed in red and black, with engraved vignette on title page. Full-page portrait of the author by C. Orsolini. Second title within engraved border by Giuseppe Filosi. Section title to the Commedia within woodcut allegorical border. Fifty-one full-page engravings by Filosi and by Giuliano Giampicoli, within one of 3 elaborate borders, one signed Filosi. Woodcut head- and tailpieces. Poetry in italic type, prose in Roman type. Bound in recent quarter leather over buckram-covered boards, with seven panel, leather title labels in period style. Bright and crisp impressions, clean and fresh text. Splendid illustrated edition of Ariosto's works, considered the culmination of 17th-century baroque styles of Venetian book design and the first emergence of the 18th-century neoclassical flowering. Ariosto's new status as a monumental Italian poet is reflected in the format of these massive volumes, representing the first appearance of the Orlando Furioso in folio in Italian. (In the 16th and 17th centuries, which saw countless quarto editions, Ariosto had not yet reached Parnassus.) This copy features strong, clean impressions of the plates, including the Orsolini's great portrait, and fifty-one elaborate, full-page allegories ahead of each canto of Orlando Furioso (which occupies the entire first volume) and the Cinque Canti. The contents of the second volume also include the seven comedies, the epistle to Bembo, the satires, L'Erbolato, and poetry in Italian and Latin. more information

New York: The Grolier Club, 1952. Hard Cover. 4to; 57, 1] p. 1/4 cloth, paper-covered boards, remains of one glassine panel. VG, Bookplate & sig. of Joseph Francis Weiler. Edition limited to 1000 copies more information

New York: Crescent Books, 1991. 31 cm; 98 pages, illustrated. Cloth in dust jacket. In the "Masters' Gallery" series. Extra shipping charges may apply. more information

Florence: G. Barbera,, 1863. 11cm; xvii, [1], 461, [3] pages, and steel engraved portrait frontispiece. Bound in original publisher's wraps. Bookplate. Shelf wear, corners bumped, but no frays, tears or stains. The comic poet Francesco Berni is still underappreciated and largely unknown to anglophone readers. According to the Britannica (11th ed), "Berni stands at the head of Italian comic or burlesque poets. For lightness, sparkling wit, variety of form and fluent diction, his verses are unsurpassed." This pocket edition includes his poems, letters, plays, a literary essay in dialogue form, and latin verse. more information

Geneva: [Eustathius Vignon], 1579. References: BM STC French (1986 Supplement) p. 13. Adams B-1466. Chaix-Dufour-Moeckli p. 94.. 8vo (14 cm); [16], 715, [3] pages. Woodcut title border, headpieces and initials. Ornamental initials in type. Extra title page in Hebrew. Roman and italic type. Text ruled in red ink. Bound in contemporary calf with gilt arabesque lozenge and fillet border on both boards. All edges gilt. Lower spine end and front joint neatly repaired. Small gouge in upper board. Bookplate of Charles van der Elst. First edition of the influential Latin translation of Psalms by Théodore de Bèze (1519-1605), leader of the Swiss Calvinists. Each of the 150 Psalms is accompanied by Beza's paraphrase and commentary. more information

Lyon: Guillaume Rouillé, 1564. First edition. References: Baudrier, 9, 296 ("Les exemplaires de ce premier tirage sont beaucoup plus rares que celui du second"); Mortimer, French, 92 ("this edition is extremely rare"); Brunet, II 1255; Gültlingen 10, 147, #594. 8vo (17cm); 147 (of 148) leaves, lacks final blank leaf. Woodcut printer's device, and 269 woodcut vignettes of Old Testament subjects by Pierre Eskrich, of which 18 are full-page cuts. Bound in unremarkable 19th-century marbled paper over boards. Two centimeters of title page excised at bottom edge, not affecting text. Pages lightly toned with only occasional blemishes or stains. Light dampmark pervades upper margin. Extremely rare first edition of the bible illustrations by Pierre Eskrich, with verses by Guillaume Guéroult. A second edition appeared in 1565, identical except for the year on the title page; the companion New Testament appeared in 1570. Merging the separate traditions of the "Biblia Pauperum" (bibles in pictures for unlettered readers) and the emblem book (wisdom conveyed in pictures with explanatory verses), this volume presents the Hebrew Bible in a series of woodcuts, glossed in French octaves. The full-page images are copied out of Estienne's 1540 illustrated Bible (Schreiber, 59), and the smaller cuts were designed for Rouillé's 1562 Bible, and here employed in more popular form, as emblems. Guéroult's name heads the dedication to Catherine de Médicis. more information

Vicenza: Simon De Gabis Bevilaqua (Colophon: per Symonem de Gabis Papiesem), 20 December 1487. References: HC 3316; GW 4476; Goff B-752.. Folio (32 cm); [8], 200 leaves. Type 1:88R, 53 lines per page. 7-line initial spaces with guide letters (initials occasionally supplied in pen by contemporary or later reader). Text in 2 columns. Bound in 18th-century (?) 1/2 mottled calf over patterned paper boards. Spine with raised bands, gilt tooling and gilt title label. Titled in ink on fore edge. Occasional notation in early hand; occasional spots and occasional light foxing. Few leaves browned in latter part of text. Free endleaves consist of original manuscript on vellum, 9th or 10th century, in a remarkably clear and readable Carolingian miniscule hand. The text on the endleaves is from the Homilies of Bishop Haymo of Halberstadt (d. 853). Boccaccio's encyclopedia of classical mythology, to which he devoted the last third of his life, opened the way for the European Humanist endeavor that flourished for two centuries after. Medieval scholasticism discouraged study of pre-Christian literature on the grounds that there could be no truth prior to Christ. In this hostile climate, Boccaccio produced a serious, comprehensive account of classical mythology, and at the same time he defended his studies against the charge of irrelevance. The last two chapters of the Genealogies of the Gods are devoted to this defense, arguing that poetry (including the entire realm of myth) is noble, demanding, and rooted in divine inspiration. It veils a central truth at its core. This defense of literary scholarship provided the theoretical framework for studia humanitatis, the study and interpretation of poetry which gave Humanism its name. Considered Boccaccio's most important work into the Age of Enlightenment, the Genealogies of the Gentile Gods was copied, read, printed and cited more frequently than the Decameron during that time. This edition, the second in the parade of printings, was the first book printed by Simon Bevilaqua, and the only book in which he allowed his family name, De Gabis, to appear. Simone Gabi (1450-1518) deliberately kept his origins in shadow. We know nothing of him before the publication of this edition of Boccaccio's Genealogies of the Gentile Deities. In all subsequent work (in Vicenza, Venice, Torino, and ultimately Lyon) he signed his name "Bevilaqua," a nickname he wore ironically because of the copious amounts of wine he consumed. In addition to Boccaccio's encyclopedia, the text also includes his gazetteer of classical geography, "De Montibus, Sylvis, Fontibus, Lacubus, Fluminibus, Stagnis, seu Paludibus, De Nominibus Maris." more information

In Venetia: Appresso gli heredi di Gio. Guerigli, 1630. 4o (22cm); 3 parts in two volumes. Printer's device on title pages. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Bound in contemporary stiff vellum, titled in manuscript on spine. Shelf wear and dust. Light damp marks present. Early ownership inscriptions canceled on front blank. References: Gamba, 1802 (1624 ed.); Vinciana 3567. Born in Loreto, Boccalini embarked on a political career and actually served briefly as governor of Benevento. He railed against the domination of Italy by Spain, France and Austria. In 1605 he began to publish his barbed "dispatches" (ragguagli), which numbered more than 300 by the time of his sudden death (poison?) in 1613. The author imagined Parnassus as a city in continuous vacation, where poets and politicians meet. He pretends to send reports from this city on a large variety of themes, but mainly on politics. The anti-Spanish satire becomes truly ferocious. more information

London: Thomas Roycroft, 1663. First edition. References: Wing B3386; Wood 245; Osleriana 2062 (later ed.).. Two volumes in one; folio (40cm); [96] pages, 1094 columns, [137] pages, 888 columns, [112] pages, and engraved portrait. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Title page printed in red and black. Text in Latin, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, and other Semitic languages. Bound in contemporary vellum, embossed with "oriental" lozenge and with the gilt stamp of the Society of Writers to the Signet on both boards. Occasional light foxing; lower joint beginning to crack, with some vellum flaked away. Vellum scuffed and discolored. Early ownership inscription on title page. In an age distinguished by great intellectuals, Samuel Bochart stood out as one of the most learned. A master of Middle Eastern languages, he was invited to Stockholm by Queen Christina (in 1652) to study the important collection of Arabic scientific manuscripts there. The Queen gave Bochart an Arabic manuscript on animals as a gift upon his departure. That gift apparently engendered the Hierozoicon, an encyclopedic work on the zoology of the ancient Middle East, as recorded in the Bible. Bochart considers each animal mentioned in scripture and explores its treatment by ancient Greek, Roman, Arabic and Hebrew naturalists. Some of the Arabic sources, liberally quoted and translated, appear in print here for the first time. more information

Paris: Lefèvre, 1835. 27 cm; 720 pages, half-title and engraved frontispiece portrait of Boileau. Text in two columns. Bound in 1/4 calf over "tree calf" marbled boards. Binding a little scuffed, but sound and entire. Foxing. more information

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985. 29 cm; 283 pages. Illustrated. Cloth, no dust jacket. Unblemished. Translated by James Palmes; revised and edited by Peter Murray. more information

Paris: A. G. Nizet, 1959. 347 p., and 7 plates. Wraps, unopened. more information

Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1971. lxi, 239 p. Wraps. Spine discolored, frayed at heel. Old stain on top cover. more information

Venice: Petrus Liechtenstein, at the expense of Joannes Oswalt, 1516. Reference: Essling, 289. Octavo (17cm); [12],329,[2] leaves (last leaf with extraneous woodcut on verso apparently bound in from a different text). Gothic type. Text in two columns. Printed in black and red, with six full-page woodcuts (one repeated, one extraneous), historiated initials and illustrated borders. Title page woodcut of Virgin in majesty. Benefactor's monogram on f. 233. Old flexible vellum, soiled. Straps not present. Title page artlessly mounted with masking tape. First quire sprung but holding. Few blemishes and stains, but basically clean. Inscription of music in contemporary hand on last blank. Ownership inscription on title page in contemporary hand (Christorpher Vuidman). Originally paired with a companion "breviarium estivalis." A fine example of Gothic printing styles surviving in early 16th-century Venice specifically for religious texts. Extraordinary woodcuts. more information

Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1973. xx, 243 p. Wraps. more information

Paris: Larousse/Plon, 1947. Wraps. 494 p. Unopened. more information

Venice: Marco Ginammi, 1625. First edition. Quarto (23 cm); [20], 448 pages. Woodcut device on title page. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Shoulder notes. Bound in contemporary full vellum titled in manuscript on spine. Covers a little worn; old spatter stain along bottom edge of lower panel. Small rupture at crown near upper joint. Text generally clean and clear. Owner's purchase entry on title page dated 1635 by Gottfried Eichorn. Armorial bookplate of Czech collector Christoph Wenzel Graf von Nostitz (1742-1804). It is a mistake to classify De Coniectandis merely as a work on physiognomy. We could translate the title, "A Psychological Theory of Signs (semeiotike moralis) about the Interpretation of All Behaviors and Hidden Emotions of the Soul; or, On Signs..." It delves deeply and philosophically into core questions of semiotics and hermeneutics, that is, the relationship between signs and meaning. Thorndike characterized it as "a treatise on reading mind and character from external signs such as voice, movement of the body, care of the person, and from outward circumstances." Chiaramonte taught mathematics at Perugia and Philosophy at Pisa. Although he made the mistake of arguing astrophysics with Galileo and Tycho Brahe, this book on interpretation of signs remains a buried cornerstone in the foundation of modern Western thinking. more information

Naples: Istituto Nazionale di studi sul Rinascimento Meridionale, 1991. 66 p. Wraps. Fine. A short history and literary investigation into the assassination that helped restore the Aragonese to the throne of Naples in 1495. more information

Bari: Laterza, 1927. Nuova edizione. 20 cm; 102 pages. Bound in later 1/4 morocco over marbled boards. Orginal wraps bound in. Early owner's bookplate. Pervasive light damp mark in lower corner, cover to cover. more information

Naples: Per Domenico Lanciano alle spese di Tommaso Alfano, 1753. 17 cm; [8], 279, [1] pages. Engraved portrait frontispiece; printer's device on title page. "Vita di Monsignor Gio: della Casa, scritta da Filippo Bulifon," pages [4-8]. Bound in contemporary vellum over boards. Title in ink on spine. Binding lightly worn, with upper joint beginning to split at heel. Lower hinge renewed. Scattered foxing. Title page toned, with light toning elsewhere. Ownership stamp on title page. The publisher, Tommaso Alfano, informs the reader that della Casa's elegant poetry in Latin had not been published together with the Italian verse and prose before (although this is not exactly true, since the "Complete Works" of 1728 is inclusive). Still, this handy volume includes della Casa's charming sonnet cycle, as well as the prose Galateo (a classic courtesy book) and the Latin Carmina. more information

Groningen: Typis Francisci Bronchorsti, 1660. Ubi de chylificatione, et chyli motu; sanguificatione; depuratione alimenti; itemque spiritibus. Quibus adjecta appendix, in qua examini ac judicio aliorum subjiciuntur varia de chyli motu, et nutrimenti in corpore elaboratione. Nec non de admiranda anatome ... D. Ludovici de Bils. 12mo (13cm); [10], 368 pages (lacks two blank leaves at end). Woodcut device on title page, woodcut initials and tail piece. Bound in recent full calf blind tooled in 17th-century style. Wellcome Institute Library copy #2 with deaccession stamp on verso of title page. Early modern research on digestion by Anton Deusing (1612-1666), professor of medicine at Groningen. The glaring typographical error in the first word of the title must have been hard to digest. The text includes an essay on "the wonders of anatomy" by Lodewijk de Bils (1623-1669). more information

Padova: Giuseppe Comino, 1738. Quinta edizione. 18cm; 186, [4] pages. Title page in printed in red and black. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Bound in modern blue paper wraps. Bright, clean, wide-margined copy. Reference: Gamba, 1340 ("meritamente si preferisce questa ad ogni altra edizione" [this edition is justly preferred over all others]). In his lifetime, Angelo di Costanza was known as a poet, one of the best, who also wrote history. Today we think of him primarily as the author of the History of the Kingdom of Naples (1582), while his fine, fluent poetry has gone into eclipse. This edition of his poems by Federigo Seghezzi throws in the work of Di Costanzo's fellow "southern" poet, Galeazzo di Tarsia, who lived and wrote in Cosenza. more information

New York: William Morrow & Co., 1991. 29 cm; 370 pages. Cloth and boards in dust jacket. As new. First edition. Companion volume to the PBS series. more information

New edition. Paris: Nizet, 1969. Wraps. 333 p. unopened. more information

[Geneva]:: Henri Estienne, 1564. First edition. References: Adams P-1705; Schreiber 152 ("This first edition was not adequately supplanted until the 19th century, and is consequently quite rare.") . Octavo (18 cm); 432 (numbered 433) pages. Printer's olive tree device (Schreiber # 9) on title page. Bound in 18th-century polished calf, gilt ruled and tooled in gilt on spine. Gilt turn-ins, marbled endleaves. Silk signet. Spine ends a bit chipped, joints cracked but firm. Very minor blemishes. Early owner's inscription on title page. First appearance in print of several early Latin authors, including Ennius, Lucilius, Caecilius, Naevius, Accius and others who preceded classical Latin poetry. Robert Estienne began collecting the surviving fragments of Old Latin text for this edition, and upon his death in 1559 the work was completed by his son, Henri II. Henri included some of the original Greek sources which the Latin poets used as models. more information

Pisa: Niccolò Capurro, 1816. 15cm; 5 volumes only (of 6). Lacks volume 6, containing the "Rime." Engraved frontispiece portrait and one folding plate. Unsophisticated copy, untrimmed in publisher's wraps. Paper labels on spines. Spine ends shelf worn with some loss. Reference: Gamba 463, note. The works of the proto-libertine who praised women and human sexuality in the Tuscan vernacular (sex talk had been reserved to Latin, a language rarely taught to women), and who incidentally helped forge Italian literary conventions. The text includes the author's imitations of Aesop ("Discorsi degli animali"), his "Ragionamenti amorose" (Discourses on love, styled after Boccaccio's Decameron), the dialogue On the Beauty of Women ("Delle bellezze delle donne," with illustrations), the epistle in praise of women, the two comedies "La Trinuzia" (the Triple Marriage) and "I Lucidi," the Macchiavellian "Novelle," and his Italian translation of the Golden Ass of Apuleius. more information

New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977. Cloth in dust jacket. 237 p. more information

Bologna, 1699.. 20 lines of text on 1 leaf watermarked laid paper (267 x 190 mm), addressed to an agent in the sale of two pictures. Slight tears where the paper has disintegrated under ink strokes result in negligible loss. Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729) is considered the quintessential representative of Bolognese classicism of the late 17th century. Schooled in a baroque tradition arching back to the Caracci, the artist gracefully anticipated elements of the subsequent neoclassical style. Among his most important projects was the decoration of a suite of rooms in the Liechtenstein Garden Palace at Rossau-Vienna, commissioned by Johann Adam Andreas, Prince of Liechtenstein (1656-1712). The letter offered here is an elegant register of market pressures and personal anxieties involved in Franceschini's commercial negotiations. It shows the artist eager to prevent his agent from underselling terms Franceschini had established with Prince Johann Adam. Franceschini writes to the agent about the commission of two pictures for an unnamed client in Vienna. The artist implores the agent to price the paintings at sixty ducats each instead of fifty. He reveals that he normally charged Prince Johann Adam a greater sum for simpler pictures, and he fears that the prince might be offended to find out that his paintings were available more cheaply elsewhere. more information

Milano: Giacomo Ferrari, 1509. First edition. Reference: Adams F-1148; Alden & Landis 509/6; Sabin 26140; Diz. dei tipografi I:437 ("di importanza non secondaria."). Folio (31 cm); [672] pages. Woodcut initials. Bound in old vellum, spine lettered in manuscript. Early ownership inscriptions and monastic library stamp on title page and colophon page. Few marginal notes in early hand. Few worm trails in margins of first and last leaves, and occasionally in text (viz. cc6 and following). Generally sound and clean, with light scattered foxing and occasional minor stains. The scope of this encyclopedia of history is vast, and its order difficult to determine. Topics range from King David to Solon, from Margaret of Holland to Suleiman, and even treats Christopher Columbus and his journey to India (verso of leaf ll-ii). Fregoso was doge of Genoa for five years in the late 1470s and early 1480s. The last years of his life were spent in exile, primarily in Milan and Rome. In Milan he wrote the "Detti e fatti memorabili" in Italian. It remained in manuscript until the publication of this Latin translation by Camillo Ghilini. more information

Florence: Banca Toscana, 1992. 4to; 311 p. Full cloth in d.j. Very good, with dust jacket spine somewhat faded 1492, year of discovery. The Renaissance peaked, the New World appeared on the horizon, the old beliefs began to give way to empirical science. This lavishly illustrated book, published for the Banca Toscana, surveys that signal year in all of its permutations. more information

Hagae-Comitum: Ex Typographia Adriani Vlaco, 1655. Editio secunda auctior et correctior. Reference: Houzeau & Lancaster 6190 and 7788.. Small quarto (21 cm); Extra printed title page, xl, 373, [11] pages, and two full-page engraved portraits of Tycho Brahe and Copernicus. Extra title page printed in red and black, dated 1655. Bound in contemporary vellum with gilt arms of the Society of Writers to the Signet. Some wear; covers dusty; minor foxing, etc. Writers to the Signet ownership inscription on title page. Generally a sound, unsophisticated copy. The real-life Canon of Digne from Umberto Eco's Island of the Day Before, Pierre Gassendi deserves high ranking in the 17th-century Republic of Letters. The life of Tycho Brahe--a hero of scientific method-- is "arguably the oldest full biography of a scientist," according to Thomas Soderqvist (The history and poetics of scientific biography, 2007). It is, however, also very much a history of astronomy. It is followed by lives of other science heroes: Copernicus, Puerbach and Regiomontanus. These were apparently first published in 1653, while the biography of Tycho Brahe was added in 1654, and is here reissued with a fresh title page and corrected text. more information

1946-1955. Paris: Nizet, 1970. Cloth. xi, 493 p. Cloth. Comprehensive bibliography of literary scholarship for the decade, comparative in scope. more information

Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1992. 8vo; 223 p. Cloth in d.j. Essays on the history of book production in the Adriatic basin from the 15th century to the 18th century. Byzantine, Islamic and Western culture meet on the Adriatic. more information

London [i.e., Paris]: G. Nourse [i.e. Jean-Claude Molini], 1756. Reference: Gamba, 538. . 8vo (18 cm); xxxii, 412, [10] pages. Typographic ornaments. Bound in full contemporary vellum with leather label on spine. Edges dyed red. Mildly soiled, with scattered light foxing. Sound and entire. First printing of most of the contents of this 16th-century Florentine frame tale (part II appeared separately some 12 years earlier). Anton Francesco Grazzini (1503-84), known in the Florentine academies as "Il Lasca," was a founder of the Accademia della Crusca and the guiding spirit of "serious" comedy and satire in 16th-century Florence. He edited a famous collection of Italian comic verse, "Canti carnascialeschi," and acquired fame in his lifetime for his own contributions to the genre. Meanwhile, he composed an extended set of prose "novelle," set in a Boccaccio-esque framework of ten youths telling stories on three dinner occasions during Carnevale in the 1540s. Publication was suppressed, probably not because of the racy contents so much as the populist, anti-authoritarian strain evident throughout. A counterfeit edition appeared almost immediately after this one, but our copy bears all the points of the original edition. more information

Urbino: Vincenzo Guerrini, 1819. First edition. 27cm; [16], 287, [9] pages,including prefaces, errata and index. Colophon dated 1820, title page and imprimatur dated 1819. Laid paper with armorial watermark. Untrimmed, wide-margin copy bound "alla rustica" in pasteboard. Occasional foxing, primarily in upper margin. A fine, unsophiticated copy. References: Lozzi, 5714; Melzi, III, 187. A fine, proud biographical encyclopedia of the Urbinati, including dukes (Federico da Montefeltro, Guidubaldo, Francesco delle Rovere), popes (Clement XI), painters (Raphael Sanzio, Federico Barocci), architects (Bramante), philosophers (Federico Commandino) and other writers, scholars, soldiers and politicians that form the rich intellectual heritage of this tiny hill town. more information

Venice: Francesco Portonaris, 1575. Not in standard bibliographies (Adams, BM STC Italian). . 4to (21 cm); 4 parts in one volume, each with separate title page and pagination: [24], 88; [4], 96; [4], 112; [4], 59 leaves. Publisher's woodcut device on title pages. Woodcut historiated and decorated initials, and head- and tailpieces. Eight woodcut medallions and two woodcut illustrations in text. Marginal notes. Bound in later (c17?) calf, with double gilt rules on both boards and gilt-tooled panels on spine. Covers somewhat worn, with upper joint cracked but holding. In the 16th century, Antonio de Guevara was more famous in Europe than any other Spanish writer. His "Marco Aurelio con el reloj de príncipes," first published 1529, achieved extraordinary success, appearing in more than 40 editions in several languages before 1600. The "Marcus Aurelius" portion pretends to be a translation of a biography of the Emperor discovered in manuscript in the Medici library. The "Dial of Princes" (to use the 16th-century English title) belongs to the tradition of counsel and instruction to heads of state to lead just, courteous and well-rounded lives. This Italian edition by Francesco Portonaris da Trino includes the fourth book (absent in some editions) which deals with sobriety, dipsomania and gluttony. It has several charming illustrations. more information

Santander: Sociedad Menendez Pelayo, 1975. 25 cm; [viii], 327, [1] pages. Bound in printed wraps with an image of the "two-faced goddess of fortune" standing upon a wheel on upper wrap. Wraps dusty, but text is fine, without blemish. more information

New York: Harper and Brothers, 1842. 2 vols. 24 cm. Text in double columns. Bound in contemporary full calf with red and black leather lettering pieces. Marbled edges. Scuffed, with crown perishing on volume 2. Moderate foxing, heavier at beginning and end pages. More valuable than commonly credited, this is perhaps the last critical work to discuss Neo-Latin literature in detail in the context of a general study of European literature. Condition noted. more information

Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press (University of Copenhagen), 2004. First edition. 273 pages. Illustrated wraps. Studies by Jensen in the Neo-Latin culture of Denmark in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The papers were edited by Marianne Pade, Karen Skovgaard-Petersen, and Peter Zeeberg. more information

Amsterdam: Jan Jacobsz Schipper, 1681. References: Landwehr, Emblem and Fable Books (3rd ed.) 432 (calling for 88 engraved illustrations only); Praz, 390.. Quarto (24 cm); [12], 320, 447, [5] pages, and engraved extra title page attributed to Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680). On p. 11, the famous print, long ascribed to Rembrandt, but now commonly attributed to Bol. Woodcut device on printed title page, woodcut initials. 92 half-page copperplate illustrations in text after Adraien van de Venne. 4 parts in one volume, parts 1-2 and 3-4 paged continuously. Bound in later (c19?) utility marbled boards with earlier (c17?) vellum backstrip. TItled in ink on spine. Binding worn, with corners bumped, and some paper abraded from edges of boards; spine dusty. Pages not bright, with occasional light dampstains, including frontispiece. Yet book is sound and entire, in good condition. Third and final edition of Krul's collected works, with illustrations attributed to Adrienne vande Venne and an extra title page attributed to Ferdinand Bols. Krul was one of literature's very few locksmith-poets, although it must be said that in later life he gave up his work as a locksmith and became a bookseller. The title might translate 'Paper world of the worldly (as opposed to spiritual) exercises." more information

Milan: Libreria Antiquaria Ulricho Hoepli, 1930. 32cm; 136 pages, and 114 full-page plates, several of them printed in colors. Bound in printed wraps, frayed somewhat at spine ends with some loss at heel. Some light foxing along edges of first and last leaves only. Text block clean and bright. Oneof the great Hoepli illustrated acution catalogues, with exemplary descriptions of 160 manuscripts, incunables and illustrated 16th-century books. more information

Venice: Remondini, 1751. 19 cm; 99, 280 pages. Lacks portrait. Title page in red and black. Engraved vignette of a beekeeper and a farmer on title page. Bound in flexible pasteboard "alla rustica," soiled, torn spine expertly repaired. Tacky residue on boards. Title page torn in lower corner, not affecting text. Light foxing. Text somewhat shaken in binding. Early owner's inscriptions canceled on front pastedown. Eighteenth-century edition of Virgilian imitations by Luigi Alamanni (1495-1556) and Giovanni Ruccellai (1475-1525). Alamanni wrote his elegant "La Coltivazione" while in exile for anti-Medici leanings. Ruccellai's poem is a free adaptation of the fourth book of Virgil's Georgics. The text also includes glosses of the poems by Giuseppe Bianchini and Roberto Titi, and a biographical sketch of Alamanni. more information

In Venetia, et in Bassano: [Giovanni Antonio Remondini], No date [ca. 1700]. 12mo (15cm); 143, [1] pages. Woodcut vignette on title page of Roman soldiers slaying infants in their mothers' arms. Bound in contemporary stiff vellum, soiled. Worm trails on pastedowns and final blanks. Elaborate contemporary armorial bookplate on front pastedown. Early owner's inscriptions in ink on front blanks (dated 1724). Woodcut headpieces. References: BL Italian 17th century 543 (dated 1690); Vinciana 2809 (dated 1753; "Graziosa edizione"). Marino's mannerist style dominated Italian poetry through the 17th century. The date of this edition of "The Massacre of the Innocents" is postulated on the period that the publisher, Remondini, was active in Bassano. The British Library's suggestion of 1690 is possible, but our owner's inscription of 1724 clearly disproves the Vinciana proposal of 1753. Text includes Canto VII of Marino's unfinished "Della Gerusalemme distrutta" and "Poesie sacre e morale. more information

New York: The Heritage Press, 1966. Hard Cover. 4to. Covers slightly spotted. Text fine. more information

Paris: Didot, 1812. Second edition. Bound in contemporary mottled pink paper-covered boards, worn. . 31cm; xiii, [i], 85 pages. Title and text in French and Italian on facing pages. Bridgewater arms stamped in red on both title pages; Egerton arms stamped in red at head of appendix (a survey of critcism on Comus). A 16-page geneaology in French of the Bridgewater family dated 1810 bound in, stamped with Bridgewater arms. Scattered light foxing only. The British eccentric Francis Henry Egerton, 8th Earl of Bridgewater (1756-1829) commissioned this translation into French and Italian of Milton's Comus in part to honor his own ancestor, John Egerton, who was present at the first performance of it. First issued in 1806, Egerton chose to reprint the corrected text with the celebrated firm of Didot. A third issue of the Italian text was printed later the same year. more information

Albany: B. D. Packard ; E. & E. Hosford, printers, 1811. 16cm; xxvi, 484 pages, and frontispiece mezzotint plate of a female figure with a tambourine tripping the light fantastic ("come and trip it as you go on the light fantastic toe"). Bound in contemporary full calf, heavily abraded yet sound and entire. Paper somewhat toned. Silk signet present. Reference: Shaw & Shoemaker, 23398. The publishing industry thrived in Albany in the early 19th century, and the firm of B.D. Packard, publisher of this sweet edition of Milton, was one of its bright lights. Packard and an early partner conceived the forward-looking idea of establishing a publishing company with all of its components under one corporate roof. The firm made its owm paper. type amd ink, and operated a stereotyping and electrotyping foundry. more information

New York: Columbia University Press, 1931. One of 150 numbered copies on hand-made paper. 24 cm; 2 volumes complete in 4 parts. I: xv, 605 pages (continuously numbered), color frontispiece portrait of Milton as a child, and 10 plates, mostly facsimiles of title pages. II: 547 pages, halftone frontispiece portrait, and three facsimile title page plates. Publisher's device in blue ink on title pages. Uniformly bound in 1/4 morocco over marbled boards, titled in gilt on spine. Top edges gilt. Volumes preserved in original slipcases. Very minor shelf wear; vol. I slipcase splitting at some joints. Edited under the direction of Frank Allen Patterson; printed by William Edwin Rudge. Contents of volume I include Samson Agonistes, the shorter poems(including L'Allegro and Il Penseroso), the Italian poems, and the Latin and Greek poems. Volume II includes Paradise Lost and Paradise Regain'd. more information