European literatureThere are 62 items
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Quatuor libri amorum secundum quatuor latera Germanie feliciter incipiunt [and other writings]
Nuremberg, Printer for the Sodalitas Celtica, 1502 (5 April)First printing of the Amores, four books of vivid erotic poems, the major work of the imperial poet laureate Conrad Celtis. The title woodcut, depicting the author in his study, and four topographical woodcuts are believed to have been devised by Celtis himself, and executed by a single cutter, variously identified as Peter Visscher the elder, Peter Visscher the younger, Jacopo de’ Barbari, or Hans Süss von Kulmbach. Two other woodcuts, the “Allegory of Philosophy” and the dedication woodcut, are universally acknowledged as Dürer’s work. -
Laude de le belle donne perusine composte per el magnifico Camillo di Porti Vicentino
Perugia, Girolamo Cartolari, 1526 (28 January)This volume of verse by “uno amoroso giouane meser Camillo di Porti gentihomo Vicentino” (folio A1 verso) is representative of a type of popular literature published across Italy in the sixteenth century which seems to have been read almost out of existence. Often printed during the pre-Lenten carnival (February-March), the books celebrate in verse the women of particular towns; many are by authors otherwise unknown; all survive in very few copies. Our book is not cited by the principal authority on early Perugine printing, Giovanni Battista Vermiglioli; no copy has yet come to the attention of the editors of EDIT 16; and we trace no copy in other online and printed library catalogues accessible to us. -
Triomphi de Troilo Pomeran da Cittadela composti sopra li Terrocchi in Laude delle famose Gentil donne di Vinegia
Venice, Giovanni Antonio dei Nicolini da Sabbio, 1534Very rare volume of verse in praise of the noblewomen of Venice, loosely organised in four parts, commencing with thirteen stanzas of ottava rima on Venetian women in general, then (after a pictorial sub-title) twenty-two stanzas of ottava rima with headings associating specific women with the tarocchi trumps (Major Arcana), next twenty-one stanzas of ottava rima addressed to the author’s “Fenice”, and lastly two quatrains and two stanzas of terza rima. No other publication of the author is known. -
Elegie nvptiale presentee a tresnoble & tresillustre Princesse Madame Magdaleine premiere fille de France, le lendemain de ses nopces & mariage celebré auec le Roy d’Escoce
Paris, Simon de Colines, 1537Six copies are recorded of this plaquette, a poem (198 lines of decasyllabic couplets) written for the marriage of François I's eldest surviving daughter, Madeleine of Valois, to King James V of Scotland, solemnised in the cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris, on 1 January 1537. -
De le Lettere di M. Pietro Aretino. Libro primo
Venice, Francesco Marcolini, 1538 (January)The first printed collection of letters by a living person in the volgare, a major event in the history of the Italian language. It inspired a flood of lettere volgare, both the collected letters of individuals and anthologies, perhaps the most distinctive product of Italian literary life in the mid-Cinquecento. This first edition has been pursued by collectors since the eighteenth century and is widely recognised now as a rare book. Six other copies are known, of which two only (London and Munich) are complete. Our copy lacks eleven leaves, including the title and final leaf, both of which were adorned with a woodcut portrait of Aretino set within an architectural frame. -
Le Fonti d’Ardenna festa d’arme, e di ballo; fatta in Firenze da dodici Signori Accademici Rugginosi il carneuale dell’anno 1623. Nel principato del Sig. Alessandro del Nero. Inuenzione del Sig. Andrea Saluadori. Descritta dal Rugginoso Percosso
Florence, Pietro Cecconcelli, 1623Description of ‘The fountains of the Ardennes’, an entertainment (tournament on horseback and dance) performed by the Accademici Rugginosi in the Palazzo della Gherardesca (Casa Rinaldi), on 3 February 1622. The librettist was Andrea Salvadori, from 1616 to 1628 the principal author of texts for theatrical entertainments at the Florence court. Music for the spectacle (now lost) was composed by Marco da Gagliano and scenery designed by Giulio Parigi. -
Aristodemo. Tragedia di Carlo de’ Dottori. All’altezza Ser.ma del Signor Principe Leopoldo di Toscana
Padua, Matteo Cadorino, 1657First edition of this five-act verse drama (with a chorus following Act IV), the “acknowledged masterpiece of Seicento tragedy” (Cambridge History of Italian Literature), first performed on 31 May 1655, by twelve Paduan gentlemen with Sertorio Orsato taking the role of Aristodemo. The play was afterwards revised for publication by the author, who incorporated advice tendered by several friends. This first edition is scarce: no copy is listed in the printed catalogues of Italian plays in the Folger Library, universities of Chicago, Illinois, Toronto, or Biblioteca Casanatense in Rome. -
Bacco in Toscana. Ditirambo di Francesco Redi Accademico della Crusca con le Annotazioni
Florence, Piero Matini, 1685First edition of “Bacchus in Tuscany”, a dithyrambic poem of a thousand lines, begun in 1666 and finally published in 1685 with copious annotations. The poem recounts the passage of Bacchus through Tuscany, accompanied by Ariadne, satyrs, and bacchantes, during which a number of local wines are sampled and evaluated, as well as other drinks such as tea, chocolate and coffee. The work is “one of the most famous panegyrics on wine ever written” (Simon) and was reprinted in at least forty-one editions. -
Rimedi per la sonn da liezr alla banzòla. Dialoghi del Dottor Lotto Lotti nel suo idioma naturale Bolognese. Dedicati alle oneste donne e cittadine di Bologna per le Veglie Inuernali
Milan, Carlo Federico Gagliardi, 1703First edition of six satirical dialogues in Bolognese dialect celebrated for their social observation of the theatrical and musical life which the author knew as a librettist and for their influence on the tradition of the commedia improvvisa. The work is illustrated by a print of ten women ”alla banzolà”, engraved by Giacomo Maria Giovannini (unknown to both Bartsch and Le Blanc). -
Religio in Aula. Laus Augustiss. Conjugum Magni Leopoldi Austriaci, et Eleonoræ Magdalenæ Teresiæ Neoburgensis. Authore Francisco Hieronymo Saxio, olim Præposito Gener. Congreg. Oblatorum Sanctorum Ambrosii, et Caroli, nunc Mediolanensis Ecclesiæ Canonico Ordinario, Comite &c.
Milan, Giuseppe Pandolfo Malatesta, 1724A book in sheets (twelve sheets 450 × 345 mm, each imposed with eight pages; and three half-sheets 225 × 345 mm, each imposed with four pages), apparently complete, making-up as a quarto of 108 pages. The work is a eulogy in verse of Eleonora Maddalena Teresa, Pfalzgräfin von Neuburg (1655-1720), third wife of Leopold I (1640-1705), and mother of the reigning Emperor Charles VI (1685-1740), to whom it is dedicated by its author. Although properly licensed, correctly imposed and printed, the book may never have been issued: there is no trace of it in relevant bibliographies, and no copy has been located in a thorough search through a broad range of printed and electronic library catalogues. -
Orlando Furioso di M. Lodovico Ariosto [with Giovanni Andrea Barotti’s ‘Vita di Msr. Lodovico Ariosto. Riveduta, e accresciuta per la terza volta, e di Annotazioni non poco aumentata, che si sono portate in fine d’essa’; and ‘I Cinque Canti di M. Lodovico Ariosto. Tutti di nuovo revisti, e ricorretti da molti importantissimi errori’]. Tomo I [-IV]
Venice, Antonio Zatta, 1772A remarkable copy, printed on blue paper, of Zatta’s lavishly illustrated and ornamented edition of Ariosto, one of “les chefs-d’œuvre du livre illustré vénitien du XVIIIe siècle” (Maria Teresa Caracciolo). All copies of the edition feature a suite of sixty-six full-page engraved plates and in addition fifty-one engraved “Argomenti”, numerous initials, head- and tail-pieces. Only a small number of special copies – we are aware of about twenty besides our own, printed on vellum, carta azzura, or two sizes of carta d’Olanda – were further embellished by figurative engraved borders enclosing every page of text. These special copies are prized by collectors, who have paid dearly for them from almost the moment of publication to our own time. -
Gesammelte Schriften der Frau Herzoginn Julie von Giovane gebornen Reichsfreyinn von Mudersbach, Sternkreuz-Ordensdame, Ehrenmitgliedes der k. Akademie der schönen Wissenschaften, Künste und Alterthümer zu Stockholm [edited by Joseph Edlen von Retzer]
Vienna, Ignaz Alberti, 1793A collected edition of prose works of “die vergessene Dichterin”, Juliane Giovane (formerly Freiin von Mudersbach), elegantly printed in the leading printing-house of Vienna. -
La Gerusalemme Liberata di Torquato Tasso. Tomo I [-II]
Parma, Nel Regal Palazzo co’ tipi Bodoniani, 1794A magnificent production of the Bodoni press, offering a new text based on the editions printed in 1581 and 1584, and on some autograph notes by Tasso collected by the editor, Pier Antonio Serassi (1721-1791). The work is dedicated by the printer (in versi sciolti, composed on his behalf by Count Carlo Gastone della Torre di Rezzonico) to Carlos IV, King of Spain, who in 1793 had bestowed upon Bodoni an annual pension of 6000 Reali and the title “Typographer to His Majesty”. Four editions were printed, in foglio grande (in two volumes, with three cantos printed on each page), in foglio mezzano (in three volumes, with two cantos printed per page), in foglio piccolo (in two volumes), and in quarto (in two volumes). According to the earliest bibliographers of the Bodoni press, Francesco Fusi and Giuseppe De Lama, the edition in foglio grande appeared first, limited to just 130 copies. -
Cimelio tipografico-pittorico offerto agli Augustissimi Genitori del Re di Roma da Giambattista Bodoni
Parma, Co’ tipi Bodoniani, 1811One of the last and least-known of Bodoni’s type specimen books, presenting forty componimenti poetici by De Rossi, director of the Reale Accademia Portoghese di Belle Arti in Rome, each poem set in a different Bodoni type opposite a “love emblem” (Praz) engraved by Francesco Rosaspina (1762-1841). According to the printer’s friend and biographer, Giuseppe De Lama, writing in 1816, 100 copies were printed, of which “non più di sei esemplari si tirarono coi contorni” and four copies coloured by Antonio Pasini. In 1948, Giani corrected De Lama’s arithmetic, claiming an edition of “sei esemplari coi contorni, quattro miniati da Antonio Pasini e quaranta normali… Preziosi edizione di 50 esemplari irreperibili”. -
Annali delle edizioni ariostee, con cxiv tavole fuori testo
Bologna, Nicola Zanichelli, 1933Two volumes (24 cm), I: xxii (2), 301 pp. II: (4) 396 (2) pp., with a frontispiece in each volume, and 114 plates. Uniformly bound in quarter-morocco. - An indispensable bibliography of all the editions of Ariosto’s works, providing detailed bibliographical descriptions of the 16th and 17th century editions (with locations of copies), and brief descriptions of those of subsequent centuries. Of the Orlando Furioso alone the authors have traced and listed 512 editions. ¶ Copy 73 of a limited edition, signed by the authors on the verso of the title-page. Fine copy in a collector’s binding. -
Medieval texts and their first appearance in print (Supplement to the Bibliographical Society's Transactions, 16)
London, Bibliographical Society, 1943(22 cm), (4) 143 (1) pp., frontispiece. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - “The display of learning (much of it curious and unexpected) set forth in the 143 pages of this book is simply stupendous” (Curt F. Bühler, from a review in PBSA, volume 37, 1943, pp. 310-314). ¶ Paper spine damaged with losses; otherwise a very good copy, partly unopened. -
Manual del librero hispano-americano. Bibliografía general española e hispano-americana desde la invención de la imprenta hasta nuestros tiempos con el valor comercial de los impresos descritos. Segundo edición § Manual del librero hispano americano. Índice alfabético de títulos, materias, correcciones, conexiones y adiciones, Empures § Manual del librero hispano americano. Addenda & corrigenda o volumen complementario del Tomo primero: A1-21526
Barcelona (latterly, Empuries & Oxford; Barcelona), Librería Palau (lattterly: Palacete Palau Dulcet / Dolphin; Editorial Palau & Dulcet), 1948-1977; 1981-1987; 1990Thirty-six volumes (26.5 cm), comprising the bibliography (items 1-381897, in 28 volumes), index (A-Z y Apendice, in 7 volumes), and addenda (A: 1-21526*, in one volume), uniformly bound in collector’s quarter-morocco (except addenda, as issued in the publisher’s printed wrappers). - A monumental work of bibliographical scholarship, the result of more than fifty years work by a single man, indispensable to anyone whose interests embrace the Hispanic world. A memoir of Antonio Palau subscribed “Hijos de Antonio Palau y Dulcet” appears in volume VIII (pp.495-497); among preliminaries of volume XIX (1967) is Miguel Palau y Claveras, “Antonio Palau y Dulcet: mi maestro”, reprinted from El Libro Español, October 1967, retaining the original pagination (pp.795-805). Volume XXVIII reprints the “Diccionario Geográfico-tipografico” with additions and corrections that had come to the notice of the editors since 1948. ¶ Faint waterstain in upper margins of volume VII; otherwise in perfect state of preservation. -
The Book called Celestina in the Library of the Hispanic Society of America
New York, Hispanic Society of America, 1954(22 cm), viii, 157 (1) pp., frontispiece, 161 illustrations. Publisher’s cloth. - A bibliographical study of Fernando de Rojas’ work, with detailed descriptions of 36 editions before 1635 in the Society’s Library, and a checklist of all editions before 1635, including translations (some editions are hypothetical). First edition. ¶ Excellent copy. -
Humanistic and political literature in Florence and Venice at the beginning of the Quattrocento : Studies in criticism and chronology
Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1955(22 cm), x, 223 pp. Publisher’s cloth, dust jacket. - Seven essays on separate subjects, with the humanist Leonardo Bruni (c. 1370-1444) the focal point. ¶ Ownership inscription in ink on endpaper. Good copy in well-preserved dust jacket. -
L'illustration de la poésie et du roman français au XVIIe siècle
Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1957(24 cm), (4) 188 pp., plus 12 leaves of plates with 53 illustrations. Publisher’s pictorial wrappers. - The catalogue (pp.81-160) provides very detailed bibliographical descriptions of 142 editions of novels and poetry illustrated by more than 70 printmakers working in France, The Netherlands, Germany, and England. “This is probably the most useful work specifically devoted to French 17th-century book-illustration to appear since Jeanne Duportal’s Étude sur les livres à figures édités en France de 1601 à 1660 (Paris, 1914)” (from a review by Frances A. Yates, in The Book Collector, Autumn 1958, pp.306-310). ¶ Superior copy in new condition.
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