Vergilius, primi libri del Eneide di Vergilio, Venice, Giovanni Padovano for Federico Torresano, 1544, seventeenth-century calf

Vergilius Maro, Publius. I sei primi libri del Eneide di Vergilio, tradotti à piu illustre & honorate donne. Et tra l'altre à la nobilissima & diuina madonna Aurelia Tolomei de Borghesi, à cui ancho è indirizzato tutto il presente volume. Venice: Giovanni Padovano for Federico Torresano, 1544

Each of the six books has been translated into Italian verse by Alessandro Sansedoni, Ippolito de' Medici, Bernardino Borghesi, Bartolomeo Carli Piccolomini, Aldobrando Cerretani and Alessandro Piccolomini, respectively. The text was taken from the 1540 Comin da Trino edition. Federico Torresano, the eldest son of Andrea Torresano, began to produce books in his own name in 1538, using other Venetian printshops.

6 parts in one volume, 8vo (150 x 96 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: A-C⁸; A-C⁸ (C8 blank); Aa-Bb⁸ Cc⁴; A- B⁸ C⁴ (C4 blank); Aaa-Ccc⁸ Ddd⁴ (Ddd4 blank); AA-DD⁸ (DD4 blank): 148 leaves. Title-page within woodcut frame, woodcut illustrations. (Lightly stained, small repair to upper corner of first two leaves slightly affecting text, a few others corners worn, illustration on f17 of part 6 lightly abraded.)

binding: Seventeenth-century calf (153 x 102 mm), gilt fillets around sides, fleuron cornerpieces, spine gilt with later black morocco label, red speckled edges. (Extremities rubbed, gilt fading, chips to ends of spine, joints cracked and defective, endpapers darkened.)

provenance: Antoine Charpentier, inscription "Bibliotheca Ant. Carpenterii Jurisconsu(lti)" (16^th century) — Devonshire family library (Chatsworth), armorial bookplate and press number ticket — James Philip Lacaita, Catalogue of the library at Chatsworth (London 1879), IV, p.97 ("18mo") — Edward William Spencer Cavendish, 10^th Duke of Devonshire (1895–1950), "10th Duke of Devonshire's Charitable Trust"; its sale, Christie's London, 30 September–1 October 1981, lot 439. acquisition: Purchased at Christie's via Martin Breslauer Inc. references: Renouard 130/4; Edit16 27857; USTC 862777