1533 · Toscolano
by Ovidius Naso, Publius (i.e., Ovid).
Toscolano: Alessandro Paganini, 1533. Second Paganini edition.. Very Good. Quarto (21 cm); [2], CXXXIII (but 137) [1 blank] leaves, signed pi\2, A-L\12, M\6. Signature A bound out-of-order after signature B, so that leaf I follows leaf XXIIII and leaf XXV follows leaf XII. Entire text complete and present. Title within elaborate woodblock lattice-scroll design on black background. Twenty-two woodcut vignettes in text, of which three are large-scale and enclosed within borders. Woodcut initials. Text of poem enclosed in commentary. Text and commentary in Paganini's unique round italic. In later flexible vellum, brief yapp edges with chamois ties, titled in manuscript on spine. Text trimmed close on top edge, occasionally touching running header. Occasional spots and blemishes, but generally clean. Vignette on E7v darkened by stain. Occasional marginalia in contemporary hand. Some old writing on verso of final blank. A nice copy, all told.
References: BM Italian, 480; Fondazione Valle delle Cartiere, Alessandro Paganini (exhibition catalogue) #50; For title page border, cf. Mortimer, Italian, 340.
Alessandro Paganini and his father were among the scholar-printers active in the tidal wave of publishing in Venice in the last two decades of the 1400s and the early 1500s (alongside Aldus, Jenson, the Giunti, and all the rest). Around 1520, the Paganini family relocated the operation to a paper mill town on Lake Garda, Toscolano, in order to be near the paper supply. While all of their contemporaries published classics either in Aldus's italic type or in some version of Jenson's Roman, the Paganini's designed their own distinctive and quite legible hybrid, unique in Renaissance printing. Father and son had produced several pocket-sized editions of Ovid (their favorite poet), but in the mid-1520s Alessandro decided to produce a series in quarto, decorated with woodcuts. Of these, the Heroides was the most popular. It went through three settings (1525, 1533, and 1538--the last being the final book out of the Paganini shop). All Paganini Press editions are uncommon and desirable. (Inventory #: 6531)
References: BM Italian, 480; Fondazione Valle delle Cartiere, Alessandro Paganini (exhibition catalogue) #50; For title page border, cf. Mortimer, Italian, 340.
Alessandro Paganini and his father were among the scholar-printers active in the tidal wave of publishing in Venice in the last two decades of the 1400s and the early 1500s (alongside Aldus, Jenson, the Giunti, and all the rest). Around 1520, the Paganini family relocated the operation to a paper mill town on Lake Garda, Toscolano, in order to be near the paper supply. While all of their contemporaries published classics either in Aldus's italic type or in some version of Jenson's Roman, the Paganini's designed their own distinctive and quite legible hybrid, unique in Renaissance printing. Father and son had produced several pocket-sized editions of Ovid (their favorite poet), but in the mid-1520s Alessandro decided to produce a series in quarto, decorated with woodcuts. Of these, the Heroides was the most popular. It went through three settings (1525, 1533, and 1538--the last being the final book out of the Paganini shop). All Paganini Press editions are uncommon and desirable. (Inventory #: 6531)
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