Pedro Damiano da Odemira | Libro da imparare giocare a scachi, [?Rome, after 1524], fifth edition, Niemeijer copy

Pedro Damiano da Odemira 

Libro da imparare giochare a scachi, et de belissimi partiti, revisti & recoretti, & con summa diligentia da molti famosissimi giocatori emendati. In lingua spagnola, & taliana, novamente stampato. [Italy, perhaps Rome, after 1524]

8vo (138 x 93 mm). Collation: A–H⁸: 64 leaves, roman type: 278 lines, woodcut of a game of chess on title-page (same block as 4th edition), woodcuts of the six chessmen (different block from 4th edition), further woodcut illustrations including depictions of moves on chessboards, contemporary calf gilt, title-page shaved at outer margin, unobtrusive wormhole to first gathering, some light spotting, neatly rebacked retaining most of original spine

Fifth (second undated) edition of Odemira's important treatise on chess, originally published in Rome in 1512. Until Ruy Lopez (see lot 42), Damiano's Libro da imparare giocare a scachi was the standard sixteenth-century textbook on chess, addressing numerous topics, including openings and blindfold chess. It was the first book to state that the far-right square on the row closest to each player must be white. Sixteenth-century editions are rare at auction. For this edition, the set of chessman was replaced with a much refined series of woodcuts.

PROVENANCE:

"Joh[anne]s Mulsii", early modern ownership inscription to title and final leaf; Meindert Niemeijer (1902–1987, prolific chess author), bookplate

LITERATURE:

USTC 351615; EDIT 16 CNCE 75900; Sander 2295; IA 149.427 (conflating Sander 2294 & 2295); Van der Linde I, 341-342