De Marinis (Tammaro), 1878-1969

Three volumes (36.5 cm), I: xxi (1), 125 (5) pp., with frontispiece and 26 plates accompanying the text (A1, B2, C1, D16 in colour), and at end plates numbered 1-207 (plus 187 bis, 187 ter, 187 quater; nos. 160, 208 not issued and omitted from “Indice delle Tavole”). II: xviii, 138 (8) pp., with 81 plates accompanying the text (including 31 bis, 38 bis), and at end plates numbered 209-414 (plus 354 bis, 354 ter, 354 quarter, 354 quinter). III: xv (1), 187 (5) pp., with frontispiece (in colour) and 51 plates accompanying the text, and at end plates numbered 415-545 (plus 504 bis; pl. 498 faces p.61, and is in colour). Uniform publisher’s quarter-morocco bindings, original slipcases. - The core of the work is a list of over 3000 bindings, mostly produced 1450-1550, which are classified party by city, and partly by type (“Greek” bindings, medallion and plaquette bindings, those with architectural decoration, antiphoners and choir-books). The author has seen the vast majority; about 20% are illustrated. “Although there may be disagreement about some of M. de Marinis’s findings, there can be no doubt of the importance and permanent value of his book, which for the first time supplies a broad and scholarly basis for the study of Italian binding… So long has passed since the book was published that few copies are likely still to be available; I can only end by assuring anyone fortunate enough to secure a copy that he will not regret it” (from a review by Anthony Hobson, in The Book Collector, Winter 1963, pp.511-519). Printed by Giovanni Mardersteig on hand-made paper. “Questo edizione è limitata a 500 esemplari”, however about half of the edition was destroyed in the Florence flood of 1966. Of the remainder, approximately thirty copies were purchased by Martin Breslauer, Inc. c. 1977. All of these copies had traces of mildew on the cloth boards. B.H. Breslauer, The Uses of bookbinding literature (New York 1986), pp.21-22. ¶ Cloth very lightly spotted (as often); otherwise in faultless state of preservation.