[ITALIAN STATUTES] Statuta communitatis S. Columbani et sue iurisdictionis. Lodi: Apud Vincentium Taietum, 1586. An extraordinarily rare book printed in the Lombard town of Lodi regarding the statutes and governance of the little munciplaity of San Colombano al Lambro near Milan. The Duke of Milan held an estate in this district, and the statutes were initially issued by his order in 1432. They were later adopted by the municipal authorities of Pavia, for the control of the sale of bread, wine, meat and fish. There were very severe penalities enacted for publicans guilty of giving short measure or adding water to wine. A printing press was first established in Lodi in 1583 by Francesco Bonati; in 1584 he was replaced by Vincenzo Taieti, who published the work offered here. The beautiful wood-cut on the title-page is of the Celtic Saint, St. Columba, who travelled to the region in the early Middle Ages and for whom the municipality is named after. I have been able to locate only one copy outside of Italy. Folio (28.6 x 20cm), [6], 35 [i.e.41], [1] leaves. Stain and repair to upper corner of title-page, a few light spots in text. Bound in modern limp vellum with ties, housed in clam-shell box. [BBII, 624; BG 1137] 

$3,500.00



PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS [EDITED BY: JACQUES LEFEVRE D'ETAPLES (1450-1536)]. Theologia vivificans. Cibus solidus. Dionysii Celestis hierarchia. Ecclesiastica hierarchia. Divina nomina. Mystica theologia. Undecim epistole. Ignatii. Undecim epistole. Polycarpi Epistola una. In alma Parhisiorum schola [Paris]: Per Ioannem Higmanu[m] et Volfgangu[m] Hopylium [Johannes Higman and Wolfgang Hopyl], 6 Februrary 1498. 

The Editio Princeps of French humanist and scholar Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples's edition of Pseudo-Dionysius with his extensive commentary and diagrams. This incunable also includes the editio princeps of the Latin version of the letters of the early Church Father St. Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35 - 108 A.D.). D'Etaples decision to prepare and publish the works of Pseudo-Dionysius were no doubt inspired by his then recent encounter with Italian Renaissance philosophers Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, whom he met during his trip to Italy in 1491-2. Both were part of a wide Platonist revival that fit in very nicely with increased focus on the mysterious 6th century Neo-Platonist theologian. The fact that the author of the Pseudo-Dionysian corpus was confused with the Dionysius who met St. Paul in the Acts of the Apostles only lent more authority to the author of these works. During the period of this publication D'Etaples was teaching at the College of Cardinal Lemoine and used the best manuscripts available to compare and revise the text. The Latin translation used was that of Ambrogio Traversari, completed in 1436. D'Etaples substitutes Traversari's brief notes with his own extensive commentary. The printers, John Higman and Wolfgang Hopyl formed a partnership in 1496, after having worked separately in Paris for several years prior. Higman was a German from Meissen who graduated from the University of Paris in 1478 and went to work at the press of Ulrich Gering. Hopyl was from the Netherlands and focused on academic and liturgical works. Although each kept their own shop in Paris, their collaboration produced the early works of D'Etaples, among other projects. Henri Estienne, the famous 16th century printer of Paris, married Higman's widow, Guyone Viart, and likely learned the printing craft under the mentorship of Higman, or Hopyl, or both. The fine woodcut border on the title-page is uniquely theirs. Rubricated initials throughout. A beautifully printed work using Gothic rotunda type; sixteen wood-cut diagrams in text, including an astronomical figure on leaf 87, and a very attractive title-page depicting two eagles. Bound in new limp vellum with ties. Lacking last blank, but otherwise complete. Extensively restored and repaired. Title-page with paper repairs, some words at bottom of recto and verso affected. The first five leaves with smaller paper repairs at bottom margins with loss of a few words. Occasional staining, heaviest on lower margin of the first ten or so leaves. Last five leave with small paper repairs and loss of a few words including colophon. Occasional bleeding of colored initials. A bit of marginalia in an antique hand, contemporary ownership inscription on title-page.  4to (28 x 22cm), [iv], 117 leaves. Small portion of final blank present. [Hain-Copinger, 6233 - Goff, D-240 - Pr., 8140 - BMC, VIII, 140 - GW, 8409 - Pellechet, 4297 - Polain, 1302 - Pettegree, 65111 - Brunet, II, 724 - Graesse, II, 399 - Dionysiaca, p. xxiii, n ° 6 - Charles-Henri Graf, Essay on the life and the writings of Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, Strasbourg, 1842, pp. 18-19 - Eugene R. Rice, The Prefatory Epistles of Jacques Lefevre of Etaples and related texts, New York, 1972, pp. 65-66 and pp. 549-550, nr. CLV.]

CAMILLO, GIULIO (1480-1544). L'Idea del Theatro. Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1550. 

The first edition of a book that has continued to amaze, perplex, and inspire for centuries since its publication, and of which interest in it shows no signs of abating. L'Idea del Theatro was dictated by the Italian philosopher Giulio Camillo during a seven day period shortly before his death in 1544, and his secretary published the manuscript in 1550 at the press of Lorenzo Torrentio in Florence. The idea behind the work was a lifelong project of Camillo, who at one point attracted the admiration of the French King Francis I and was able to secure financing to undertake his project of building his "Theater" which would encompass and categorize all the knowledge that could be known by man. Recently a letter was discovered in Milan which proves at at least part of Camillo's Theater was actually built, although there are no remains of it today. The Theater has been visualized by artists in several variations, but the key points are the same. The spectator, instead of taking a seat in the audience, is actually standing on the stage, and looking at the rows of seats which are divided into seven tiers and seven sections. Each section is dedicated to a different planet, which exerts its own force on that section, and each tier is concerned with some aspect of creation or the cosmos, beginning with elemental matter and ascending to the arts and works of human beings. The interplay between the tiers and the sections includes a very wide assortment of visual and textual cues which are suppose to work on the spectators intelligence and imagination in order to bring him or her to kind of recollection, eloquence, and enlightenment. Although Kabbalistic and Astrological concepts are strong in Camillo's description, the Theater is by no means only, and even primarily, an occult or magical experience, but is a real attempt to scientifically appeal to man's psyche in a way to both improve his skills as well as order and categorize knowledge in a very physical way. For this reason, Camillo's Theater has found admirers both in the area of mnemonics (Frances Yates famously wrote about Camillo in her book 'The Art of Memory' published in 1966), as well as in modern day computing, with some writers seeing in Camillo's system a precursor to computers and the internet, especially in its growing use of graphic interfaces. It is probably because of this link with the digital age that interest in Camillo's work is continuing to grow, although his work was never entirely forgotten. However one may approach the work, there is no doubt that its sheer ingeniousness, originally, and enigmatic nature makes it one of the most fascinating works of the 16th century. 4to (22 x 15c,), 86pp. + colophon. Pagination erratic but continuous. A few leaves with scattered foxing, ownership inscription effaced on title-page, antique marginalia in Italian on some leaves. Bound in contemporary limp vellum, loosely held by ties, spine with a few chips. This first Florentine edition is uncommon on the market, with only three copies that have gone up for auction in the last forty years.

$5,000.00

ARISTOTLE [COMMENTARY BY JACQUES LEFEVRE D'ETAPLES (c. 1455- 1536)]. Decem libri ethicorum Aristotelis ad Nicomachum, ex traductione Ioannis Argyropili Byzantii : communi familiariq; Iacobi Fabri Stapulensis commentario elucidati, & singulorum capitum argumentis praenotati. Adiectus Leonardi Aretini de moribus Dialogus.. Paris: Vaenales habentur in officina Simonis Colinaei chalcographi, e regione scholae Decretorum, 1522. 

A gem of a book, published by Simon de Colines in 1522 and bound, most likely, in Milan between 1522-1525, while the French were occupying the city. The binding has characteristics shared by the  Morgan Library copy 19117, and was perhaps bound by the same binder or his heirs. Note, for example, the arabesque lozenge which is blind stamped twice horizontally on the Morgan copy and compare with the lozenge gilt tooled twice vertically on this copy - the design is almost exactly the same, although the Morgan copy's stamp is slightly larger. Also, the double blind tooling of the fillets, and the quality of the leather seems to suggest an identical binder, or at least a close association with the Morgan's Jean Grolier copy. The only other arabesque lozenge design that I have found that is similar to the one in the copy offered here is 'Ad invictissimum' by Fausto Andrelini (1507) (Paris, BN, lat. 8393) of the Fontainebleau Library, which has the same lozenge design stamped vertically five times in a line, but these lozenges are of a slightly different ratio in terms of wide and height, and the binder may have either imported the tools from the Milanese workshop or was inspired by the Milanese design. In any case, the Fontainebleau copy was bound in Paris by or under the direction of Simon Vostre. A date of 1522-1525 for our copy's binding also posits that the book was bound for a Frenchman stationed in Milan at the time of the occupation - his choice of reading material, a Parisian copy of an Aristotelian commentary by a famous French humanist, supports this theory, as does the gilt stamping of rather elaborate fleur-de-lys on the covers of the binding. The binding itself is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship, and rather unusual in that it includes a double box on the covers, each tooled in gilt with the arabesque lozenge and fleur-de-lys. The inner fillet is blind tooled in a lovely vine pattern, and the four corners of the covers are embellished with gilt rosettes. The binding still includes the original cloth ties. There is minimal wear to the binding; a few light signs of chaffing to the spine ends. The spine includes four compartments, blind tooled with X shaped crosses. The text the owner chose to adorn with such a fine binding is one of the early, and masterful printing jobs, of the famous Parisian publisher, Simon de Colines, one-time disciple to the great Henri Estienne, and guardian of Estienne's children. After working in Estienne's shop for a number of years, Colines struck out on his own in 1520, making this imprint one of his earliest accomplishments. His rightly praised skill of font and page layout is already present in this edition, as is seen by the beautiful elegance of the type, and the way that he handles the text and the commentary. The subject chosen - Jacques d'Etaples' commentary on Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics - could not be more apropos the revival of humanistic learning occurring throughout Europe - especially in France and Italy. The commentary first appeared several years before, in 1514, in an edition by Henri Estienne, but Estienne's edition left something to be desired aesthetically. Colines' entirely new edition makes the text both practical and beautiful, and the size is such that it could have easily been carried about. This 1522 Colines edition is quite rare - I could only locate a handful of copies worldwide. 8vo (17 x 11.5cm), 350pp. Last page is the colophon. A few instances of antique marginalia, title-page a bit toned, a very fresh interior. 

CHRISTOPHE DE LONGUEIL (1488-1522). Christophori Longolii civis Romani perduellionis rei defensiones duae. Paris: Venundantur in officina Badiana, 1520. A very rare work from the brief but stormy career of French Renaissance humanist Christophe de Longueil. Longueil spent considerable time in Rome in the early 16th century, but his formerly strongly pro-French writings, with a tinge of anti-Romanism, created problems for him in the Eternal City. The work published here is a personal defense that Longueil felt compelled to make on his own behalf in front of the Roman authorities in order to prove his allegiance to Rome, and includes praise for Roman culture and history. I could locate only one copy of this 1520 Paris edition in U.S. institutions. A 1519 edition was published in Rome and is held by at least the Newberry Library, but it certainly lacks the new preface included here and perhaps the second oration. Small 8vo (17 x 11cm), 59 leaves. Lovely wood-cut on title-page. Library stamp on title-page and in margin of one other leaf. Some occasional damp-staining in margins. Bound in modern quarter vellum over boards. [ref. Moreau II:2402. - Renouard (Impr.) 453. - Not in Adams, Machiels, BL, NUC. Prov. Libr. stamps.]

$750.00