[Claudianus, Claudius ca. 370-404] Sanuto, Livio (ca. 1520-1576). ...La rapina di Proserpina di Liuio. Venice, [Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari ?], 1551. (Copy)
[Claudianus, Claudius ca. 370-404] Sanuto, Livio (ca. 1520-1576). ...La rapina di Proserpina di Liuio. Venice, [Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari ?], 1551. (Copy)
[Claudianus, Claudius ca. 370-404] Sanuto, Livio (ca. 1520-1576).
Al reuerendissimo et illustrissimo signor il cardinal di Trento La rapina di Proserpina di Liuio.
Venice, [Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari ?], 1551.
Outstanding copy on blue paper,
from a sixteenth-century private press
[Claudianus, Claudius ca. 370-404] Sanuto, Livio (ca. 1520-1576).
Al reuerendissimo et illustrissimo signor il cardinal di Trento La rapina di Proserpina di Liuio. Venice, [Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari ?], 1551.
8° (184x118 mm). Printed on blue Paper. Collation: A-H8. [64] leaves. Complete with the last blank. Roman and italic type. Numerous large woodcut decorated initials. Handsome Roman eighteenth-century red morocco, over pasteboards. Covers framed within elaborate dentelles, at the centre, gilt-tooled coat of arms of the Doge Marco Foscarini. Spine with five raised bands, compartments decorated with gilt acorn tools, title in gilt on black morocco lettering piece. In a half-leather box. A fine copy. On the front flyleaf ‘rarissimo 16’.
Provenance: Marco Foscarini, 117th Doge of Venice (1726-1797; armorial binding; see Catalogo della Biblioteca Foscarini ai Carmini. Vendibile a Venezia nel 1800, lot 2833, “[Sanuto, Livio]. La Rapina di Proserpina. Poema. Ven. 1551. 8. Leg. in mar. ros.”); Henry Chandon de Briailles (1898-1937; ex-libris on the front pastedown and recto of front flyleaf). Old armorial stamp on the title-page, very faded.
A superb copy on blue paper of the exceedingly rare first edition of Livio Sanuto’s translation, or adaption, into Italian of the poem De raptu Proserpinae by Claudian. One of the few copies known, it is likely to have been privately printed for the Bishop of Trent, Cristoforo Madruzzo (1512-1578), who is also the dedicatee of the publication, and is well known for having the honour of hosting one of the most important events of the sixteenth century: the Council of Trent.
A reprint appeared in 1553, and is attributed by Dennis E. Rhodes to Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari on the basis of the large woodcut capitals used there, and which occur in many other books published by the Venetian printer. However, “Gabriel Giolito de Ferrari [...] rarely indulged in anonymous printing, or printing on behalf of other publishers. He was too successful and too independent on his own” (D. E. Rhodes, Silent Printers, p. VIII).
The volume presented here is finely bound in red morocco bearing the arms of Marco Foscarini, the 117th Doge of Venice and one of the most famous eighteenth-century collectors of Aldine and Italian books. His library was sold by his heirs in Venice in 1800; the lengthy preface appended to the sale catalogue celebrates the Libreria di Casa Foscarini – highly esteemed for the refined taste of its owner, the rarity of the books, and the beauty of the bindings – as “una delle più scelte tra le particolari di Venezia”, i.e., “among the most exquisite Venetian private libraries”. In the twentieth century, the volume was preserved in the library of the wine merchants Chandon de Briailles; this library was first assembled by Raoul, founder of the eponymous and celebrated mark of champagne, and was subsequently expanded by his son Henry Chandon de Briailles.
Another copy on blue paper is held in Milan’s Biblioteca Braidense, and is considered to be a printing proof for the second edition of 1553 (“Esemplare con correzioni mss. sul front. e data corretta da 1551 a 1553, e molte correzioni mss. nel testo; probabile bozza di stampa per l’edizione del 1553”). Three ‘normal’ copies are recorded in the libraries at Harvard, Yale, and Cambridge University, with the latter copy lacking the dated title-page and thus possibly a copy of the 1553 edition (see Adams S-376, and Adams S-377).
Edizioni per i Madruzzo (1540-1659). Dedicatari, committenti e autori nella famiglia dei principi vescovi di Trento, Trento 1993, no. 44; D. E. Rhodes, Silent Printer: Anonymous Printing at Venice in the Sixteenth Century, London 1995, p. 245 (for the 1553 edition).
