Epistol[ar]e Marii Philelfi su[m]mop[er]e emendate ac Venetia magna dilgentia atq[ue] anxietate per me: Ioannem de monteferrato, de Tridino ...

Venice: Ioannem Monteferrato de Tridino (Giovanni Tacuino), 1492. Hardcover. Very Good. [October 6, 1492]. 4to (215 x 155mm). [108 leaves]. Signatures: A4, a-n8. Edited by Ludovicus Mondellus (Luigi Mondella). Preface addressed to Octavianus Ubaldinus, Prince of Mercatello. Capital spaces with guide letters. Early floreate blindstamped paneled calf over thick wooden boards; (hinges splitting and parts of spine perished at head and tail, some worming to boards and leather, internal light browning, some thumbsoiling at front, and few minor wormholes, all in all, a wonderful medieval survival). This copy with contemporary scattered marginalia and Latin (truncated) and Italian inscriptions, heavy at the beginning and end, some names come through “Pietropaolo Porcella” and other bibliographic notes (title repeated at least three times). This copy from the library of Gustavo Camillo Galletti (1805-1868), his two nineteenth century rubber-stamps to title. Galletti was a famous Florentine nobleman, lawyer, and bibliophile. He was known for his rare book purchases and for writing a few successful publications on Latin poetry. Filelfo’s Latin epistles would have been great interest to Galletti who greatly appreciated classic prose and literary works. Older bookplate on interior front cover partially revealing interlaced monogram “IL?” under crown (unidentified), with library number 40164. A work of utmost rarity and quite important to Italian Latin Humanism, this copy is further enriched by contemporary inscriptions and remains in an authentic binding. Quite rare, OCLC/WorldCat locates five US copies at NYPL, Folger, Harvard, Bryn Mawr, Loras College. UK copies at Cambridge and the Bodleian. Two copies in Florence and Trento, Italy. More common is the 1489 and 1495 editions from Basel (Amerbach). Only a single copy appears in recent auction records (Sotheby's, October 2002) and that copy lacking 38 leaves. Hain-Copinger 12976; Goff P-621; Proctor 5420; not on ISTC. Complete incunabule of Filelfo’s “Latin Letters,” the “Epistolare Marii Philefi,” a celebrated Latin primer for letter and prose writing in Renaissance Europe. Giovanni Mario Filefo was born in Constantinople in 1426. His father was Francesco Filelfo (1398-1481), the noted author and humanist who brazenly declared himself the successor of Petrarch. Francesco Filelfo first began his editions of the epistles, a textual body of over two thousand documents, in 1473. The Epistolare totaled thirty-seven books of correspondence which was intended as a primer for pupils throughout Renaissance Europe. Some of the letters were in Greek and Italian, but they were chiefly in Latin. The letters and speeches in the series ranged from anecdotal matters to discussions of literary issues and reflections on the course of human affairs. The texts were an ideal choice for printers and teacher in the early sixteenth century as they not only taught students how to write elegant Latin prose, but taught readers the fine art of negotiation and urged them to improve on the powers of expression. The Filelfo Epistolare were often reprinted after 1480 and after Francesco’s death. This edition by his son Giovanni was praised for its “completeness;” first printed in 1486 and then again in 1492. Additionally, Amerbach was famous for his first Basel edition of 1486. Giovanni Tacuino was an important Italian publisher and typographer active in Venice and a contemporary of Aldus. The letters in the preface of the Epistolare between Mondellus and Octavianus remain to be an important medieval record of correspondence. Fileflo’s important work published over five centuries ago has all but fallen into oblivion, but this is altogether a most notorious early humanistic work and not commonly found.

Complete incunabule of Filelfo’s “Latin Letters,” the “Epistolare Marii Philefi,” a celebrated Latin primer for letter and prose writing in Renaissance Europe. Giovanni Mario Filefo was born in Constantinople in 1426. His father was Francesco Filelfo (1398-1481), the noted author and humanist who brazenly declared himself the successor of Petrarch. Francesco Filelfo first began his editions of the epistles, a textual body of over two thousand documents, in 1473. (Inventory #: SAV119)