Alessandro Salvio | Il Puttino, altramente detto, il cavaliero errante, Naples, 1634

Alessandro Salvio

Il Puttino, altramente detto il cavaliero errante ... sopra il gioco de' Scacchi, con la sua apologia contra il Carrera, diviso in tre libri. Naples: Domenico Montanaro, 1634

FIRST EDITION. Collation: π⁴ A-I⁴: 40 leaves, roman type, title-page with woodcut coat-of-arms, woodcut initials and ornaments, paper flaw to second leaf

[bound with:]

Trattato dell' inventione et arte liberale del Gioco di Scacchi, libro quarto. Naples: Domenico Montanaro, 1634

Second edition. Collation: A⁴ *⁴ A-H⁴: 40 leaves, roman type, title-page with woodcut coat-of-arms, woodcut initials and ornaments, paper flaw to B2, marginal tear to B2, some browning to last few leaves

2 works in one volume, folio (197 x 135 mm), later vellum gilt, gilt-tooled borders and crown emblems, red speckled edges, dampstaining to upper inner margin, endleaves renewed, top edge dust-soiled

Taking its title from the nickname of early Italian chess master Giovanni Leonardo, Salvio's Il puttino includes an account of Leonardo's career, extracts from Cessolis (see lots 10–15), thirteen chapters on gambitti, seven on giochi piani (games aside from gambits), and thirteen on problems. Il puttino, which contains three books, is, as seen here, often found bound in one volume with the Trattato, containing the libro quarto. The 1634 edition of the Trattato is described by Murray as "practically a reprint of the games and problems of the 1604 edition", although the third book comprises a "bitter attack" on Pietro Carrera, whose own chess manual (printed 1617) had critiqued a move in a Queen's Gambit described in the 1604 edition of the Trattato.

PROVENANCE:

"Geo. Garnier": armorial bookplate

LITERATURE:

VDL Geschichte I, p. 369; Schachlitteratur 2236; KB 384, 383; Murray, pp. 825-27