Le guerre di Ferrara & Lombardia . [Florence?: Bartolommeo di Libri?, after August 1483]. Chancery 4° (207 x 143 mm). Collation: [1] 6 (1/1r incipit: Divina maesta del cielo impuro governatore dogni cosa creata , 1/6r Finite le guerre di Ferrara & lo(m)bardia , 1/6v blank). 6 leaves. Double columns of four eight-line stanzas. Type 97R. Printed paragraph mark opening first stanza. (Small paper flaw causing hole to lower blank margin of first leaf, a few tiny wormholes in gutters, faint marginal foxing.) Modern boards. Provenance : Giuseppe Martini bookplate ( Catalogo 1934, no. 224; sale, Part II, Zurich: Hoepli, 21 May 1935, lot 114); Bonfiglioli, monogrammed booklabel. ONLY COPY KNOWN, APPARENTLY UNRECORDED. This anonymous cantare , or narrative poem, of 85 stanzas in ottava rima , relates events of the war undertaken in 1482 by the Venetian republic, in league with the Papal States and with Genoa, against Ferrara allied with Milan, Mantua, Bologna, Florence and Naples. The last episode alluded to is the invasion by Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, of the territories of Bergamo and Brescia, during which the Duke seized 35 castles, and the subsequent retreat of the Conte Roberto di Sanseverino, general of the Venetian army, which occurred in August 1483. It is probable that the poem was written shortly thereafter, and printed before the end of the year. (Peace was declared on 7 August 1484.) The edition was attributed to the Florentine cleric-printer Bartolommeo di Libri by Giuseppe Martini Di Libri, active ca. 1482-ca. 1510, is notorious for the huge percentage of his output that was anonymous--the great majority of the 260 works now assigned to his press. Many of these were brief tracts or poems, which may have been deemed of insufficient importance to require identification. His earliest fount, the 97 mm. Roman type apparently used here, originated with the Neapolitan printer Henricus Alding (active 1477), and was brought to Florence with other Neapolitan material by the Florentine printer Francesco di Dino about 1480-81. The earliest known dated work printed in this type, and assigned to di Libri, is an edition of Gregorio Dati's popular poem La sfera , dated 9 November 1482. Di Libri continued to use this type until 1495, when it was superseded by a slightly modified version. Another anonymous and undated edition of a different version of the same or a similar popular poem is recorded by GW (10235). Also of 8 leaves, this edition in 81 stanzas, signed by one "Francesco", is printed in gothic type and was assigned by GW to Venice, ca. 1483. The types were identified from the only known copy (curiously also ex-Martini) by Paul Needham ("ISTC as a tool for analytical bibliography", Bibliography and the Study of 15th-Century Civilisation , p. 49) as identical with the types used by five different Venetian printers. Brunet (Supplement, I, 577) and Essling (320) record another edition, also in 81 stanzas, but with a woodcut illustration. It is not clear whether this is the same edition as that described by GW. In any case, the relationship among the versions and editions of poems on this theme remains to be elucidated.
Le guerre di Ferrara & Lombardia . [Florence?: Bartolommeo di Libri?, after August 1483]. Chancery 4° (207 x 143 mm). Collation: [1] 6 (1/1r incipit: Divina maesta del cielo impuro governatore dogni cosa creata , 1/6r Finite le guerre di Ferrara & lo(m)bardia , 1/6v blank). 6 leaves. Double columns of four eight-line stanzas. Type 97R. Printed paragraph mark opening first stanza. (Small paper flaw causing hole to lower blank margin of first leaf, a few tiny wormholes in gutters, faint marginal foxing.) Modern boards. Provenance : Giuseppe Martini bookplate ( Catalogo 1934, no. 224; sale, Part II, Zurich: Hoepli, 21 May 1935, lot 114); Bonfiglioli, monogrammed booklabel. ONLY COPY KNOWN, APPARENTLY UNRECORDED. This anonymous cantare , or narrative poem, of 85 stanzas in ottava rima , relates events of the war undertaken in 1482 by the Venetian republic, in league with the Papal States and with Genoa, against Ferrara allied with Milan, Mantua, Bologna, Florence and Naples. The last episode alluded to is the invasion by Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, of the territories of Bergamo and Brescia, during which the Duke seized 35 castles, and the subsequent retreat of the Conte Roberto di Sanseverino, general of the Venetian army, which occurred in August 1483. It is probable that the poem was written shortly thereafter, and printed before the end of the year. (Peace was declared on 7 August 1484.) The edition was attributed to the Florentine cleric-printer Bartolommeo di Libri by Giuseppe Martini Di Libri, active ca. 1482-ca. 1510, is notorious for the huge percentage of his output that was anonymous--the great majority of the 260 works now assigned to his press. Many of these were brief tracts or poems, which may have been deemed of insufficient importance to require identification. His earliest fount, the 97 mm. Roman type apparently used here, originated with the Neapolitan printer Henricus Alding (active 1477), and was brought to Florence with other Neapolitan material by the Florentine printer Francesco di Dino about 1480-81. The earliest known dated work printed in this type, and assigned to di Libri, is an edition of Gregorio Dati's popular poem La sfera , dated 9 November 1482. Di Libri continued to use this type until 1495, when it was superseded by a slightly modified version. Another anonymous and undated edition of a different version of the same or a similar popular poem is recorded by GW (10235). Also of 8 leaves, this edition in 81 stanzas, signed by one "Francesco", is printed in gothic type and was assigned by GW to Venice, ca. 1483. The types were identified from the only known copy (curiously also ex-Martini) by Paul Needham ("ISTC as a tool for analytical bibliography", Bibliography and the Study of 15th-Century Civilisation , p. 49) as identical with the types used by five different Venetian printers. Brunet (Supplement, I, 577) and Essling (320) record another edition, also in 81 stanzas, but with a woodcut illustration. It is not clear whether this is the same edition as that described by GW. In any case, the relationship among the versions and editions of poems on this theme remains to be elucidated.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
