GESSI (Berlingiero), inter alia:

La Spada di Honore Libro Primo [ - Ottava]. Delle Osseruazioni Caualeresche del Senator Berlingiero Gessi. All' Altezza Serenissima di Cosimo III. Gran Duca di Toscana.

In Bologna, Per l'Erede di Domenico Barbieri, 1671 Small 4to, 228 x 165 mms., pp. [xxxvi, including half-title and engraved title-page], 188 [189 - 222 index and letters, 223 colophon, with printer's device: In Bologna, M. DC. LXXI. Per l'Erede del Barbieri, all' Insegna delle due Rose. Con licenza de' Superiori. Ad instanza di Gio. Francesco Davico detto il Turrino, Con Privilegg, 224 blank]; and including engraved portrait (by Lorenzo Tintus after J. Rigus After) of Gessi before address to the reader, 10 further engraved plates (by Lorenzo Tintus after drawings or designs by Domenico Maria Canuti) included in registration, engraved head- and tail-pieces, complete with all plates as called for, contemporary limp vellum (slightly soiled), lettered in ink on spine; base of spine slightly wormed, but generally a very good and attractive copy, with fine impressions of the plates. Among the dedicatees of this rather impressive emblem book are Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1642 - 1723), with one dedication signed by Gessi (1631 - 1671) as well as Francesco Giovanni Sampieri, and others. Gessi attended the University of Bologna and was awarded at Ph. D. when he was 20. He was professor of law at Bologna and later spent much of his career in the Roman Catholic church, as, among other roles, a Papal Nuncio, governor of Rome, Bishop of Rimini, and a Cardinal. Landwehr, J. French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese Emblem Books,; 316; Praz, M. Studies in 17th Century Imagery, 67; BN,; 59, p. 953; British Library Catalogue of 17th Century Italian Books, 388. Heckscher and Sherman, Emblem Books in the Princeton University Library, 361. Thimm, 114.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 8197

Catalogue: Emblem

Keywords: Emblem priinting history literature

GIOVIO (Paulo):

Dialogo dell' Imprese Militari et Amorose Di Monsignor Giouio Vescouo di Nocera. Et del S. Gabriel Symeoni Fiorentino. Con un ragionamento di M. Lodovico Domenichi, nel medesimo fogetto. Con la Tavola.

In Lyone, Appresso Gulielmo Rouillio. 1574. 8vo, 173 x m112 mms., pp. 280 [281 - 393 indexes], with vignette on title-page, engraved portrait of the author on the verso of the title-page, and 137 emblematic figures in the text, handsomely bound in 19th century basket-weave morocco, title in gilt on spine, all edges, a very attractive and near-fine (title-page slightly foxed, corners a little worn) copy, with the Wrest Park bookplate on the front paste-down end-paper, and the recent bookplate of John L. Nevinson on the verso of the front free end-paper. Nevinson (1984 - 1985) was a curator and costume historian, working both in the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The spectacular library at West Park in Bedforshire is about as impressive provenance as one could want. Paulo Giovio (19 April 1483 – 11 December 1552) began his impressive career studying medicine at Padua, but he later achieved fame in several fields, as a historian, a biographer, and prelate. The present work was published posthumously in 1555 and is one of the most famous emblem books to own. The wood-engraved emblems and portraits were all drawn by Thomas Arane. Guido Arbizzoni in his essay, "Impresse as Emblemss: The European Reputation of an 'Italian' Genre" The Italian Emblem: A Collection of Essays (2007), begins with an unarguable opening assertion: "The posthmuous publication in 1555, of Dialogo dell' Imprese Militari et Amorose...was a turning point at which a 'fashionable' phenomenon began to become an object of investigation and cataloguing in written texts entirely devoted to it." There are numerous digital copies and paperback reprints of the work, but none can come even close to 16th century editions in the clarity of the images. A. Adams, S. Rawles et Saunders, A Bibliography of French Emblem Books of the XVIth and XVIIth Centuries, F.270.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 10186

Catalogue: Emblem

Keywords: Emblem binding literature

LE MOYNE (Pierre):

De l'Art des Devises Avec Diverse Recueils de Devises due meme Autheur.

A Paris, Chez Sebastien Cramoisy, & Sebastine Marre Cramoisy..., 1666. FIRST EDITION. 4to, 246 x 170 mms., pp. [xl], 521 [522 - 539 indexes, 540 - 541 Privilege, 542 blank], including engraved and printed title-pages, with engraved vignette on printed title-page, 67 engraved vignettes for each of the sonnets, and 57 engraved vignettes for the "Devises Adoptés," full-page engraved plate [page 382], by Lalouette for with the arms of the Duchess of Aiguillon, to whom the work is dedicated, engraved head- and tail-pieces, contemporary mottled calf, spine ornately gilt in compartments, dark olive morocco label (rubbed and chipped) top and base of spine chipped, corners worn, front joint cracked (but firm), spine darkened and a bit rubbed. Praz, p. 401; Landwehr, Romanic, 471-472; Adams, Rawles & Saunders, F.393; Jean-Marc Chatelain, Books on emblems and currencies, 1993, n ° 55.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 9614

Catalogue: Emblem

Keywords: Emblem medals prose