Beschreibung:

Bembo (Pietro)De Aetna dialogus, first edition, second issue, 30ff., 22 lines plus headline, Roman type, initial spaces, leaf B2 with misprint 'qnia' corrected to 'quia', washed, modern vellum by Carmencho Arregui (not signed), small 4to, [BMC V, 554; HC *2765; Goff B-3004; Renouard, Alde, 7:4], small 4to, Venice, Aldus Manutius February 1495/96. ⁂ An extraordinary copy of the extremely rare first edition of Bembo's first published work. This typographic landmark was the first Aldine printed in Latin only, and is celebrated as the first appearance of the innovative and beautiful Roman type, cut by Francesco da Bologna, surnamed Griffo (1450-1518). Undoubtedly one of the most handsome roman typefaces ever produced, it was modelled on the handwriting of Bembo himself, and was possibly realised with the collaboration of the great copyist Bartolomeo Sanvito According to Stanley Morison the 'R 114 type' hailed a new epoch in typography, and in its perfect simplicity 'became instantly popular. So famous did it become that it influenced typeface design for generations. Posterity has come to regard the Bembo type as Aldus' and Griffo's masterpiece [...] This face, which was modestly launched in a 60-page favour to a friend and became eminently popular in Italy, soon found its way to France. The design came to the attention of Garamond, the famous French type founder, and through his efforts to duplicate it the design eventually spread its influence to Germany, Holland and the rest of Europe. The Aldine roman was to become the foundation of new typeface designs for hundreds of years' (A. Haley, Typographic Milestones, p. 23). This dialogue, dedicated to the Venetian Agnolo Gabriele, the prominent humanist Bembo, a close friend of Aldus and one of his most important collaborators. It commemorates his youthful ascent of Mt Etna during the two-year period (1492-94) he spent in Sicily studying Greek with Constantine Lascaris, and during which he supplied the manuscript of Lascaris' Greek grammar, the Erotemata, the first book issued from the Aldine Press (Erotemata, see Goff-L68). Interlocutors of the dialogue, written on Bembo's return, are his father Bernardo- designated by the letters BP (Bembus pater- and the author himself, indicated as BF (Bembus filius). In the description of Etna's ignes and subcava montis natura, the young humanist makes use of Lucretius, Virgil and Ovid, and stresses the contrast between the luscious and fertile Sicilian landscape and the dreadful power of the volcano. "De Aetna records his 1493 stay in Sicily and his ascent of Etna, prompted by the spirit of discovery that was even then directing Columbus across the Atlantic [...] The Mediterrean garden landscapes on the coast at Taormina are described in loving detail, and the richly fertile lower slopes of Etna claimed to be 'ever decorated with flowers and in continuous spring, so that it is easy for anyone to imagine that this indeed was the location of the rape of Persephone'. As Bembo ascends the mountain however, he leaves behind the fields of Ceres and approaches Pluto's lair. This is howling wilderness, a landscape of sulphurous origins, violent winds, fire and primal chaos:'clefts and caverns in the mighty rocks. The remainder of the dialogue is devoted to speculation on the sources of volcanic fire and Etna's relationship to the whirlpools and tidal races of the Straits of Messina'" (D. Cosgrove, Geography and Vision, p. 64). A very tall copy measuring 200 x 144mm (the UCLA copy measures 195 x 123mm), with a distinguished provenance, of what Renouard calls a 'Livre extrêmement rare, et d'une grande beauté'. This copy without Aldus' corrections (see C.F. Bühler, Manuscript Corrections in the Aldine Edition of Bembo's De Aetna). Provenance: The antiquarian bookseller Carlo Alberto Chiesa (1926-1998).