BOOKS IN ITALIAN
A-C D-L M-O P-Z
Maffei, Francesco Scipione. Teatro del Sig. Marchese Scipione Maffei cioè la tragedia la comedia e il drama non più stampato.... Verona: Gio. Alberto Tumermani, 1730. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). xli, [3], 281, [1] pp.; 1 fold. plt., illus.
$675.00

First edition. Francesco and Andrea Zucchi were responsible for the copperplate engraving for this work: The title-page bears a copperplate vignette, with four other copperplate vignettes and one decorated capital present as well as the oversized, folding plate. Giulio Cesare Becelli edited and introduced this collection of Maffei’s plays, providing what Gamba calls “tre erudite prefazioni.” The author was an archeologist and man of letters whose tragedy Merope (present here) achieved enormous popularity in not only his native Italy but also almost every country where translations appeared, including France, England, Germany, and Holland.
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Gamba 2323; not in Brunet. Contemporary vellum over paste boards, outer edges yapp, spine with hand-inked title; vellum torn and partially lost over lower edge of front cover, with signs of wear and small spots of staining elsewhere. Ex-library, front pastedown with Italian institutional bookplate; yet volume otherwise free of markings. Title-page verso with affixed scrap of paper. Intermittently occurring light dampstaining in upper margins; otherwise clean.
Villa Benedetta in Words — A Copy of a RARITY for a Reader
Mayer, Matteo. Villa Benedetta. Roma: Per il Mascardi, 1677. 12mo (14.5 cm; 5.75"). 127, [1 (blank) pp. Lacks the 3 leaves of plates.
$300.00
First of three editions of Mayer’s architectural description of the Villa Benedetta in Rome. The format suggests that the volume was written for the tourist travelling “to see the sights.”
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WorldCat locates only two copies of this edition.
Recent marbled paper-covered boards with leather spine label. Without the plates; light age-toning. (26145)
Medina, Pedro de. Arte del navigare. Venetia: Appresso Tomaso Baglioni, 1609. 4to (20.5 cm, 8"). A4 b4 2A8 B–Q8 R10; [7], [1 (blank)], 137, [1 (blank)] ff.; illus.
$8000.00


Pedro de Medina’s (1493–1567) Arte de navegar (originally published in Spanish in 1545) was a ground-breaking work on compass navigation, and became a standard manual translated into many languages. Medina was famous as a mathematician and cosmographer, and the king of Spain placed him in charge of examining pilots and masters for the West Indies. This second Italian edition (the first was printed in 1554) was translated by Vincenzo Palentino; it has a title-page in red and black with a woodcut printer’s device, and woodcut initials, tables, and illustrations, many showing how to make celestial observations.
Also included is a woodcut map showing Europe, the Atlantic, and the New World.

Palau 159680; Alden & Landis, European Americana, 609/77; Medina, BHA, 123. Old vellum; red leather, gilt-lettered spine label; some staining, and chipping to edges and label. Old, careful repairs to interior worming occasionally cost individual letters (but never sense) or a little loss to an illustration. Old rubber-stamps and red and black ownership label on title-page; inked notations on title-page and front pastedown. All edges speckled red.

If you don't mind those Chipped labels . . . QUITE
Satisfactory!
Metastasio, Pietro. Opere scelte di Pietro Metastasio. Drammi (vols. I, II, & 3); Azioni e feste teatrali; Opere sacre [,] poesie varie e traduzioni. Milan: Societa Tipografica de' Classici Italiani, 1820. 8vo. 5 vols. I: Frontis., LV, [1], 565, [3] pp. II: 642, [2] pp. III: 646, [2] pp. (lacking half-title). IV: 626, [2] pp. V: [4], 617, [11 (index)] pp.
$200.00
Five-volume set of collected works by the celebrated 18th-century poet and librettist, with the first three volumes dedicated to his historical plays.
Contemporary vellum, spines with gilt-stamped leather title and volume labels and gilt-stamped decorative bands; bindings lightly soiled, with spine labels chipped and rubbed, spines with shelving numbers in white. All page edges stained gold. Front pastedowns with institutional bookplates, title-pages with shadows of pencilled numerals. Vol. III lacking half-title. Intermittent light foxing, most pages clean. (14112)

The First
CHILEAN Naturalist
Molina, Giovanni Ignazio. Saggio sulla storia naturale del Chili. Bologna: Stamperia di S. Tommaso d'Aquino, 1782. 8vo (20 cm, 7.9"). 367, [1] pp. (map lacking).
$700.00
Uncommon first edition of a classic work of natural history. Despite having been expelled from his native Chile along with his order in 1767, the Jesuit naturalist and geographer Abate Molina (a.k.a. Juan Ignacio Molina) published several volumes on the country; the Catholic Encyclopedia online calls him “the most prominent historian and geographer of his native American home.” The present important example of his scholarship went through several editions in its original Italian and was also translated into German, Spanish, French, and English.
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Brunet, III, 1811; DeBacker-Sommervogel, V, 1165; Graesse, IV, 568; Leclerc, Bibliotheca Americana, 1958; Palau 174558; Sabin 49888. Contemporary quarter mottled sheep and speckled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-tooled compartment bands; spine leather chipped/cracked with spots of insect damage, corners abraded, and sides/edges otherwise lightly rubbed. Some leaves browned; scattered light stains. Lacking the map, text complete. (26248)
Imperial
Troops Enter Naples
(Newsletter
Austrian Charles Crowned King).
Relazione della gloriosa entrata dell'armi cesaree in questo regno, e città
di Napoli. Sotto la condotta dell'Ecc. Signor Giorgio Adamo conte di Martinitz,
plenipotenziario cesareo in Italia, e vice-rè in questo regno per la
maesta' di Carlo III. d'Austria nostro glorioso monarca, e comandante dal signor
generale conte di Daun. Napoli: Presso Dom. Antonio
Parrino, e Michele-Luigi Muzio,1707. 4to (21 cm, 8.25"). [2] ff.
$250.00

The Kingdom of Naples was in Spanish hands from 1502, but inefficient
administration succeeded in alienating the nobility and the people. A series
of insurrections and foreign interventions followed over the next two centuries,
until an Austrian army finally took the city in 1707 during the vacuum period
between the death of the last Hapsburg ruler of Spain and the success of the
Bourbons in capturing the vacant Spanish throne. With the support of an anti-Spanish
faction, Archduke Charles of Austria was then proclaimed king as Charles III,
as this contemporaneous item relates. This newsletter is simply printed, with
a woodcut vignette of the imperial double-headed eagle.
This
item is rare: No copies were found in OCLC, RLIN, or NUC Pre-1956.
Removed from a nonce volume;
without wrappers. Uncut. A few very light spots of foxing.
In excellent shape.
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