Regio, Delle vite dei sette santi, Naples, 1576, contemporary red morocco with gilt panel stamp, the dedication copy for Archbishop Palombara
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
REGIO, PAOLO. Delle vite de i sette santi protettori di Napoli Descritte dal Abb. Paolo Regio. Seconda impressione. Naples: Giuseppe Cacchi dell Aquila, 1576
THE DEDICATION COPY, IN A RICHLY-GILT PANEL-STAMP BINDING WITH THE ARMS OF ARCHBISHOP MASSIMILIANO PALOMBARA.
First edition, second impression. Regio’s Vite dei santi protettori di Napoli was first printed by Giuseppe Cacchi in 1573 (Edit16 CNCE 47571; USTC 852209; Manzi, La tipografia napoletana nel '500: annali di Giuseppe Cacchi, no. 63). This "seconda impressione" of 1576 seems to be unrecorded. It appears to be substantially a reissue of the 1573 sheets, with newly printed preliminaries (title now Delle vite… and dated 1576, with a portrait of the author on verso; followed by a new dedication to Palombara), and with an additional gathering (L4) inserted after K7. The date in the original colophon (MDLXXIII) was amended (MDLXXIIIIII) using a hand stamp. Another edition (dedicated to Annibale de Capua, appointed archbishop of Naples in 1578) appeared in 1579 from the Neapolitan press of Orazio Saviani.
This distinctive panel stamp is found on a total of five extant bindings, on books published at Paris, Rome and Venice between 1520 and 1576. Hobson believed this plaque was exclusively used in Roman workshops (see: Hobson & Culot, Italian and French 16th-Century Bookbindings, 1991, p. 55, no. 2).
8vo (159 x 100 mm). Italic type, 31 lines plus headline. collation: *4 **5 A-I8 K1-7 L4 K8: 94 leaves. Woodcut printer's device on title-page, woodcut portrait of author on verso of title-page, woodcut initials and ornaments. (Some light spotting and browning, quire L untrimmed at lower margin.)
binding: Contemporary red morocco (162 x 109 mm), two blind fillets around sides, richly gilt Roman panel stamp, inside a gilt fillet frame, interlaced double fillets forming numerous compartments, mostly open on one side and interlaced with vines and tendrils with azured leafy ends, gilt birds resting on tendrils in corners, winged angel heads in compartments at head and foot, in centre on upper cover a cartouche with arms of Archbishop Massimiliano Palumbara, including a painted white dove on a black ground, on lower cover in cartouche the motto "MERITI / PARS / PARVVIA / MAGNI", spine with 3 full bands, tan morocco title-label in second compartment, others with gilt swirling vegetation, stubs from 2 pairs of ties, edges gilt and gauffered. (Old repairs to spine ends and upper corner of lower cover, binding slightly scraped with a few small wormholes to foot of spine and pastedowns.)
provenance: Archbishop Massimiliano Palombara (d. 1607), ordained 1574, arms on binding, the dedication copy—Maurice Burrus (1882-1959), bookplate to upper pastedown, by descent until sold, Alde, Paris, 17 October 2017, lot 62. acquisition: Purchased in 2019 from Christopher Sokol, London. references: Apparently unrecorded.
You May Also Like
