Bembo (Pietro)

Della historia vinitiana…volgarmente scritta libri XII, first edition, large woodcut printer’s device on title, also repeated on last f. verso, historiated initials, occasional spotting, light toning, and damp staining at the end of volume, 2 small paper flaws to title, last leaf dusty and repaired, inscription of Francesco Filippino to front free endpaper, pastedown reinforced with leaf bearing printed ex libris in Latin verses ‘ex dono Claudii Horatii Caprae…’, a few early marginal inscriptions in an early hand, slightly later vellum over boards, [Adams I-110; Brunet I, 767; Cicogna, 570; Gamba, 130; Lozzi, 5906], 4to, Gualtero Scotto, Venice, 1552.

***First edition of the Italian translation of the Latin work printed for the types of Aldus Manutius the previous year, with the title ‘Historiae Venetae’. On the verso of f. 72, Bembo praises Christopher Columbus, as a humanistic symbol of going beyond the boundaries of the known.