•  Adams P238, P239, P246 (1560 ed. only), P243; Brunet, IV, 356. Contemporary vellum-covered boards, spine with inked title; vellum slightly soiled, with spine title faded. All edges stained blue. First title-page mounted and several leaves with outer margins or upper outer corners reinforced, two pages with loss of a few letters at upper outer corners. Second play lacking two preliminary leaves and final register leaf. Two leaves with annotations in an early inked hand, now faded; pages with intermittent mild waterstaining.

This set includes two volumes of supplemental text, adding a number of entries. The first edition was followed by two volumes of supplemental plates, not present here and not called for: Graesse describes this edition as “sans grav.”

The pagination is erratic in a number of places; there is a numbering gap from 2342 to 2351 between vols. IV and V, but the text and signatures are uninterrupted.

Uncommon: OCLC locates only two U.S. institutional holdings of this second edition.

Provenance: Most volumes with small inked ownership inscription in an outer margin: “G.R.W.” the mark of William Rollinson Whittingham (1805–79), fourth Episcopal Bishop of Maryland and an enthusiastic book collector.

•  Brunet, IV, 851; Graesse, V, 429. Not in Sabin.   Contemporary half binding, recently rebacked with tan paper, spines with printed paper labels; boards rubbed and faded with small chips, one vol. with front cover waterstained. Foxing almost throughout, generally no worse than moderate; light waterstaining in upper margins of vol. I; one leaf in vol. VII with lower outer portion torn away, with loss of words from about 18 lines on each side. Vol. II with printer's error replacing pp. 1065–72 with duplicates of pp. 1057–64; pagination erratic in other places. Most vols. with ownership mark as above; vol. VI with one pencilled and one inked marginal annotation.  (25862)

•  Original paper wrappers, spine with hand-lettered paper label. Early inked owner’s inscription on front free endpaper; one early inked shouldernote. Some pages with faint hint of foxing, most clean. A very good copy.

Binding: 19th-century half treed calf over gray and blue marbled boards; spine, , bearing green and red morocco labels, handsomely gilt with rules and rolls and center devices in the compartments. All edges green.

Provenance:  Ink inscription on front fly-leaf, vol. I, dated 1823 at London, by the painterSIR GEORGE HAYTER (1792–1871), who lived in Italy for part of his career and collected old master paintings. Hayter and his second wife, Louisa, left London for Rome in 1816, where he abandoned the miniature paintings that made him famous in England and took up full-scale portraits, landscapes, and historical subjects. After returning home for some years Hayter moved again to Florence, but was forced to leave after Louisa killed herself. Despite the scandal, Hayter was elected to the academies of Florence, Parma, and Bologna; knighted in England; and he was appointed court painter by Queen Victoria.

Engraved bookplates on the front pastedowns of both volumes read, “To Angelo C. Hayter, From his affectionate Father, Sir George Hayter, 1864.” According to the DNB, “To [Sir George's] regret his son Angelo gave up painting as a profession and joined the civil service, rising to become chief reviewer of wills at Somerset House.”

Evidence of readership: Pencil annotations in the margin of p. 279, vol. I, by G.H. [George Hayter], giving the current location in 1850 of a painting by Bonifacio Veneziano — of Herod's daughter bringing John the Baptist's head to him during a meal — formerly belonging to the King of England and“now in possession of the Duke of Bedford,” George Hayter's most important patron (DNB), whose collection he must have known intimately.

•  Brunet, IV, 1300 (“estimé et assez rare”); Graesse, VI, 120; Cicognara 2359 (“Opera tenuta in gran pregio potendosi chiamare questo autore il Vasari dei veneziani”); Gamba 2063; UCBA, II, 1739; Arntzen & Rainwater, p. 90; on George Hayter, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online.   Bound as above, extremities and boards a little rubbed. I: Nine plates wanting. Inkstains (limited) in lower margin of frontispiece and natural flaws in upper margin of title-page; small tear in outer margin of one leaf. II: Two plates wanting. One plate repaired in upper inside corner, another lightly frayed at fore-edge; natural flaw in outer margin of one leaf. In each volume a few ink smudges not from a pen but from the press, a bit of bug-spotting, a little thumb-soiling, and some quires browned. A handsome, enjoyable set in itself and one with a provenance to conjure with.  (30087)

Uncommon: We locate only three copies in U.S. libraries.

Provenance:  Bookplates of Lord Farnham and the famous Bibliotheca Lindesiana.

•  20th-century faux leather. Two blank portions of title-page excised (old ownership stamps/signatures?); repaired sometime back and next two leaves also with old repairs at gutter. Lacks one preliminary leaf; usually-slim strip of water- or damp-damage affecting top margins in various degrees; all edges red.  (13489)

The title-page here has a most striking xylographic printer's device depicting a man looking up at the moon. The work is also decorated with a number of handsome, rather unusual woodcut historiated initials and headpieces. The text is in italic and roman with sidenotes.

Provenance: “D.M. Armstrong / Venice 1872.”

•  Not in Adams. Limp vellum with indications of lost ties; soiled, stained, and cockled with some holing (a natural hole in the vellum of the rear cover is repaired by sewing). Front fly-leaves with some holing and chipping, partially repaired with paper. Pages lightly waterstained and cockled with some shallow dog-earing, a little shallow tattering, and some browning and soiling, usually on the edges. Inked ownership inscription on front fly-leaf.

This book is “around” in libraries; ISTC locates 12 U.S. copies.But on the market, it is a different story!

•  Goff S222; H 14436; HC(+ Add) 14439; Audin 126; CIBN S-107; IGI 8739; Sallander 2430; Pr 6361; BMC, VI, 684; GKW M40472; ISTC is00222000.   20th-century grey boards, lightly discolored, with caramel-color leather label on front one. Text very clean.  (27042)

Savonarola wrote this painful document in prison, completing it on or before 8 May 1498. Significantlyone of the most widely read and reprinted of Savonarola's works, it was in its original Latin version immediately distributed in Florence and quickly translated into Italian, this particularly early version at the instance of “certain devoted women” (our translation, f. [1]r). Indeed Giovannozzi lists a total of 32 printings in four languages from 1498 to 1581, ISTC noting of this one that it is “printed in a later state of the type associated with the Printer of the Caccia di Belfiore, who is identified as Lorenzo Morgiani and Johannes Petri by A. Tura, in La Bibliofilia 101 (1999) pp.1–16.” A neat, handsome incunable production.

Provenance:  Probably from Lathrop C. Harper (its binding style, see below).

ISTC locates 8 copies in libraries in the U.S., 5 in Britain, 15 on the Continent, and 1 in Australia.

•  Goff S216; BMC, VI 695; IGI 8737; ISTC is00216000; HR 14428; HC 14429?; Audin 145; CIBN S-104; GKW M40538; Pr 6305; Giovannozzi 104 (“S.n.t [sec. XV]”); Ridolfi, I, 389, & II, 220.   20th-century grey boards, lightly discolored, with caramel-color leather label on front board. Text very clean.  (27045)

The tense political atmosphere in Florence after Savonarola's death prevented Violi from publishing the collection for nearly a decade (although he did issue five of the sermons individually while Savonarola was still alive). This, the fourth edition, was edited by Giovanni Brasavola, and dedicated to the Duke of Ferrara and Queen Isabella of Aragon.

The text is in Italian with scriptural references in Latin, printed in roman character in single-column format, occasionally narrowing on the page into center-justified conclusions; the volume's good sprinkling of historiated and decorated woodcut initials are more than usually lively, and the woodcut on the title-page fittingly shows Savonarola preaching to a large crowd with one listener writing — being the same woodcut used by B. & O. Scoto in 1539, their device appearing here in the center of the pulpit.

Marks of readership: Occasional marginal annotations and some underlining in early ink.

•  Ginori Conti, I, 65; Giovannozzi, 211; Essling, III, 105; Sander, note to 6829. Not in Adams.   20th-century binding with yapp edges using an 18th-century piece of vellum from an antiphonal (age-toned and lightly rubbed); marginal notes often shaved, sense however generally intact; lacks final blank (only). Occasional slim, short instances of worming, good repairs at one corner of title-page (affecting one letter) and same to following two leaves; one other leaf neatly repaired at gutter; a very few spots and rather neat inkblots. Very good+.  (27054)

In his address to the reader, Gianotti explains he translated the text into volgare out of charity, to accommodate the common reader (“alla moltitudine degli ignoranti che alla paucita de dotti,” f. +v). A note above the colophon acknowledges the assistance of Padre Fra Girolamo Armenino da Faenza, an inquisitor in Lombardy, in bringing the work to light. The whole is dedicated to a Doctor of Law Bartolomeo and the Florentine Francesco Gualterotti, then serving in the Venetian Senate.

A table at the front outlines the sermons, and an epilogue summarizes the contents for the “fatigued” reader.

The text is printed in roman, double-column format, introduced by a famous woodcut of Savonarola seated to the right of a desk in his cell crammed with books and an hourglass, writing, beneath a crucifix and a barred window. The decorative scheme continues with one large woodblock initial of three putti starting the dedication, three large handsome criblé woodcut initials at the beginning of major sections, and small floriated initials and block capitals throughout.

Evidence of readership: Ink manuscript ottava about isolation and redemption in an early, neat hand below the colophon.

•  Adams S513 (also lacking final blank); Brunet, V, 160; Essling, III, 102; Sander 6834; Giovannozzi 156; Ginori Conti n.6 (title-page woodcut reproduced, Tav. I a); Catalogo della collezione Guicciardiniana della Bib. Nazionale Centrale di Firenze, p. 299; EDIT16, CNCE 39132.   20th-century vellum over paste boards, yapp edges and striking marbled endpapers, very clean; spine with black leather label and modest gilt ruling, place and date gilt directly on spine. Lacks final blank; small hole and one tattered corner to title-page, scattered foxing and stains, some from early candle wax. Two old place markers laid in.  (27053)

In contrast to Savonarola's formal treatises, “you have here, Reader, [Girolamo's] genuine mirror . . . in which you may observe his countenance and your own” (cataloguer's translation, f. a3v) — a letter to his father on deciding to join the Order, one to the Countess della Mandorla upon her entering a convent, another to the Sisters of Santa Lena, a handful to his brethren at San Marco, and one to a Bolognese woman on communion.

The editor/translator Jacques Quétif (1618–98), a Dominican priest working chez Louis Billaine in Paris, produced a variety of Latin translations from original Tuscan texts. He brought forth this collection of letters hitherto unedited in France as an augmentation to his two-volume Vita . . . Savonarolae (1674), introducing each one with a few contextualizing lines and sometimes giving additional remarks about his Latin translations “ex Ethrusca.” All but the first three epistolae (in Latin only) appear in both languages, with the original (Tuscan) Italian on the verso and Latin (printed in italic) on the recto of each opening.

The privilege, dated 18 December 1673, grants rights to Billaine (d. 1681) and Sebastien Mabre-Cramoisy (1642–87), then director of the Royal Imprimerie.

Scattered woodcut ornaments embellish some pages. A list of errata appears early (a4) and two tables of contents, in Latin and Italian (pp. 275–80), appear at the close.

•  B. Montagnes OP, “Éditions et éditeurs de Savonarole dans la France d'Ancien Régime,” in Archivium fratrum praedicatorum, LXXV, pp. 159-178. On Savonarola's life and works, see: Villari, The History of Girolamo Savonarola (1863), and H. Lucas, Fra Girolamo Savonarola: A Biographical Study, p. xviii.   Contemporary calf, rebacked early on with spine very nicely gilt extra; corners of boards worn through. Title-page restored by leaf-casting and a small tear at the outer margin repaired, f. g3 with tear at outer margin breaking into text without loss, and limited crescent of very light waterstaining to upper margin of some leaves, the interior otherwise clean and very good. All edges speckled red.  (27057)

The Vatican Incunabula catalogue notes that this commentary was, “In fact written after Savonarola's death, probably by the Dominican Simone (or Placido) Cinozzi”; ISTC adds, “The Dominicans ordered an enquiry into its authorship and publication on 24 May 1499.” Placido (Lorenzo) Cinozzi (1464–1503) is famous for his Epistola of 1501–03, considered the earliest extant biography of Savonarola; he first heard Savonarola preach at San Lorenzo in 1484 and later knew him at San Marco, where Cinozzi joined the Dominican order in 1496.

Evidence of readership: Early ink manicule in the margin of f. 3v, pointing to a passage beseeching God to free His people, who are in great danger; and some letters finished with the same ink (ff. 3v–4r).

Provenance:  Probably from Lathrop C. Harper (its binding style, see below).

ISTC locates five copies in libraries in the U.S., two in Britain, and ten on the Continent.

•  Adams S485 (“c. 1501”); Goff S203; HCR 14410; H14409?; CIBN S-151 (“about 1500”); IGI, VI, 131 (“after 1500”); Audin 128; Pr 6453; BMC, VII, 1209; GKW M40467; ISTC is00203000; Proctor 6453; Isaac 13494; Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae, Incunabula, III, S-120 (see above); C. Olschki, “Un codice savonaroliano sconosciuto,” in La Bibliofilia 23 (1921), pp. 154–65, at p. 163; R. Ridolfi, Vita, II, p. 669, n. 22 (“about 15 May 1499”); Walsh 3035e. On Cinozzi, see: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani online.  20th-century grey boards, lightly discolored, with caramel-color leather label on front board, and blue edges; rectangle of offsetting to paper of back cover, probably from a similar label on a similar book once this one's neighbor! Text very clean.  (27040)

A Roman edition also appeared in 1694, the year of the work’s first appearance; the present edition is more uncommon: We trace only one U.S. library copy of it.

•  DeBacker-Sommervogel, VII, 1079. Boards covered in music-printed paper from an 18th-century antiphonal, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page and one other stamped by a now-defunct institution. Light spotting throughout, more pronounced to first and last few leaves; some corners dog-eared.

The Italian text is accompanied by citations and original documentation, which is in both Italian and, mostly, Latin; it is printed in roman and italic, with one large floriated woodcut initial and a decorative headpiece at the beginning of the first chapter. The final leaf contains the imprimatur and errata.

Searches of NUC Pre-1956 and WorldCat locate only two copies in U.S. libraries, one of which has been deaccessioned.

•  Contemporary vellum over boards with four laces visible on covers at spine extremities, gilt title in painted spine compartment, red marbled edges; binding somewhat soiled and bumped and a bit warped, with light worming not penetrating the leather. Title rubbed affecting a few letters; a light brown stain running along the gutter on two leaves and a crescent stain at the bottom of one other not affecting text; small tears at a couple of outer margins; and a handful of natural paper flaws, especially notable to two leaves that literally came up short in the press and therefore have “deckle” lower edges. Old pressure-stamps to title-leaf and a few others, a five-digit accession number stamped in two places, old library pencillings, indications of removed bookplates and card pocket; minor dampstaining, foxing, and age-toning throughout, most notable in the first and last two gatherings. Recital of faults and “library features” makes this sound much less appealing than it is.This is a sound, attractive, pleasing book.  (29568)

The Catholic canonist Augustin Theiner (1804–74) went to the Vatican Archives in 1850 at the invitation of Pius IX, who five years later appointed him Prefect. During his tenure at the BAV, Theiner published numerous collections of primary source material, including the present set. In 1870, however, he was dismissed from his esteemed post for sharing documents related to the Council of Trent with opponents of the Curia during Vatican Council (1869–70).

•  NCE, 14, 9 (Theiner); A. Mauri, “A. Theiner”, in ArchStorIt 21 (1875), pp. 350–91; H. Gisiger, “Theiner und die Jesuiten,” in Bilder aus der Geschichte der katholischen Reformbewegung, 1.5–6 (1875), pp. 213–314; ADB 37, pp. 674–77; LTK 10, pp. 27–28.   Half roan and green cloth over boards with marbled edges and gilt to spines, a bit rubbed and with evidence of onetime shelf-labels; offsetting from leather turn-ins visible at edges and internally on some leaves. Very minor foxing to a few leaves in vol. I, and scattered small inkstains in both volumes. Title imprint in vol. II smudged in printing.  (29409)

There is also some Americana interest when the author discusses in several places the drinking of chocolate.

•  Bitting 117 (second ed.); Cagle 1132 (first ed. of Davini only); Hünersdorff, Coffee, I, 395; Osler, Biblotheca Osleriana, 2428 (first ed.); Vicaire 250 (second ed.); Alden & Landis, European Americana, 727/231.  Contemporary vellum, darkened, with a few pinholes of insect damage and some minor spots of staining. Title-page with inked ownership inscription in Latin, dated 1728. Pages a bit cockled, with edges darkened; most mildly to moderately foxed.

Appended to Xerez's account (fols. [43v] to [55r]) is a translation of Miguel de Estete's account of Pizarro's army's journey from Cajamarca to Pachacamac and then to Jauja. Estete too was present at Cajamarca and is said to have been the first Spaniard to lay hands on Atahuallpa.