RUSCELLI Girolamo – Le imprese illustri – 1566

Descrizione

RUSCELLI Girolamo – Le imprese illustri con espositioni, et discorsi del S.or Ieronimo Ruscelli. Al Serenissimo et sempre Felicissimo Re Catolico, Filippo d’Austria – 1566. In Venetia (Appresso Francesco Rampazetto, from the colophon page). Full rigid vellum, handwritten title (“Ruscelli Trattato di varie Imprese Illustri”) at the spice, raised bands; quarto, cm 27,5 x 21; leaves (2b) (10) column 8 pages [9 – 136] columns [137 – 144] pages [145 – 212] (4) [213 – 344] columns [345 – 352] pages [353 – 398] (18) [401 – 566] (1) (1b) leaves (2b); a few spots at the binding, lower white edge of the first title page with an old paper reinforcement (to hide an old handwritten ownerships note), sporadic and very light foxing here and there, all the double-page plates with a paper reinforcement at the verso in correspondence of the folding, minor crack at the upper edge between the gathering S and T, in correspondence of the first double-page plate but, overall, a very good and fresh copy with wide margins. Marbled endpapers, private library (“Biblioteca di Pierpaolo Vaccarino”) stamp at the first blank, text in italics also, on one and two columns, 3 allegorical copper engraved title pages (one for each of the three books which makes up the entire work, the second and the third one at D3v e DDD4v), 4 (out of 5) double-page copper engraved plates, 15 full-page engraved emblems and 114 little engraved illustrations in the text, plus several initials, Damiano Zenaro printer’s mark at the end (motto: “Virtuti sic cedit invidia”) at BBBB4r. Scarce first edition of this emblems book by the well-known Italian writer and cartographer Girolamo Ruscelli. At *2 we find the Ruscelli’s dedication to the King Philip II of Spain, in which the Author explains his aim of ‘consecrating’ the important lives of the princes he was about to publish here. The they follow two different indexes. Among the others, the Authors depicts the emblems of Alfonso II Duke of Ferrara, the Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, Bertoldo Farnese, the Archduke of Austria Charles II, the cardinal Carlo Borromeo, the emperor Charles V, the king of France Charles IX, Caterina de’ Medici, the pope Clemens VII, the duke Cosimo de’ Medici, Ercole II duke of Ferrara, the emperor Ferdinand I, the Spanish King Philip II, Francesco Gonzaga, Isabella Gonzaga, Sforza Pallavicino, the Sultan Suleiman and Guido Bentivoglio. The extremely rich corpus of engravings is basically complete, although the copy is lacking one of five double-page plates (the one missing is the second one titling “Mihi absit gloriari nisi in domino”, which should have been equal to the other one with the same title): there is one “Mihi absit gloriari nisi in domino”, two equal “Sine Fine” and the representation of the Muehlberg battle from Enea Vico, engraved by Domenico Zenoi.