Cento favole morali..

1577. Venice: Giordano Ziletti, 1577.

4to, (4), 301, (8, index)pp. Architectural woodcut title border with Ziletti's device, woodcut of an astrologer and 100 woodcut illustrations by Verdizotti. Early Italian polished calf, central blindstamp probably just decorative, gilt supralibros on upper cover of crossed keys (Papal?). A little worn and scuffed, joints repaired, but a very respectable copy of a rare and very important book.

ß Second Ziletti edition (third overall) of Verdizotti's fables; he is mainly remembered for his friendship with Titian. Ziletti notes that Verdizotti made use of Gabriello Faerno's Fabulae centum (Rome, 1563). Faerno's hundredth fable is that of the man, the boy, and the donkey, used by Verdizotti to preface his collection. The Faerno engravings are said to be after Titian, and some of Verdizotti's designs are also attributed to Titian. See Adams V-401 (same collation as the 1570 edition); Brunet V:1130; Mortimer Italian 523. The provenance of this copy is of interest: the front pastedown bears the ink inscription H.I.R. Giovanni Pandolfi Eysenmans and beneath Vedizelli in the same hand, also the green leather bookplate of Georges Flore and Genevieve Dubois, a small white bookplate being a line drawing of two doves (?), and finally a bookseller's label Lamy, pp., Grande-Rue, 35, ‡ Poligny which is north of Geneva and west of Bern near the Swiss border.