DONI, Antonio Francesco. I marmi . Venice: Francesco Marcolini 1552-53.
DONI, Antonio Francesco. I marmi . Venice: Francesco Marcolini 1552-53. 4 parts in one, 4 o (207 x 150 mm). Collation : A-X 4 Aa-Pp 4 a 4 B-X 4 AA-MM 4 . 260 leaves, the 4 parts separately paginated. Italic type. Woodcut devices on last pages of each part within full-page scrollwork borders, title of part 1 with large globe device (from Doni's I mondi , published at the same time), parts 2-4 each with a different device, 44 woodcuts, including 3 repeats, of various sizes, including a portrait of the author on A4v of parts 1 and 3 and other portraits of contemporary Florentine writers and cultural figures, the smaller cuts set within ornamental borders of scrollwork and grotesques, the borders repeated for a few section headings, woodcut ornaments and historiated initials. (Title slightly soiled, first four quires with wormtracks in gutter margin, MM2 with marginal tear, last leaf loose, a few occasional pale stains.) Contemporary flexible vellum, gilt armorial block in center of covers (somewhat worn and soiled). Provenance : Prince Augustus Frederick Duke of Sussex (1773-1843), sixth son of King George III (armorial bookplate); acquired from John Fleming 1966. FIRST EDITION of one of the eccentric Doni's more unconventional works, consisting of a series of imaginary dialogues involving over 100 different characters, some real, some fictive, who are portrayed conversing on the marble steps ( I marmi ) of the Duomo of Florence on a wide range of unrelated topics. These include, in part 2, the invention of printing (Aa4r) and the accomplishments of Aldus Manutius lauded on fols. Cc2v-4r for his erudition, sterling character, and services rendered to literature. Some of the characters, who include a few marble statutes, voice protests over the unequal distribution of wealth in the city; others recite entire novelle or poems. Doni, a former priest, improvised his most famous books, I marmi and I mondi (see previous lot), which he wrote in the middle of Marcolini's printing shop, handing the compositor his copy as it flowed from his pen, and illustrating the works at whim with blocks from his own collection and from Marcolini's stock. Thus portraits of real individuals (including a striking profile of the printer himself, on part 4, page 15) are randomly intermingled with blocks for editions of Ariosto, inherited from other printers, or with a stray woodcut of a fool astride a crayfish (part 4, page 19), originally cut for an edition of Brant's Ship of Fools . Adams D-824; Gamba 1368; Mortimer Italian 165; Ruth Mortimer, "The Author's Image: Italian Sixteenth-Century Printed Portraits", Harvard Library Bulletin , vol. 7, no. 2 (Summer 1996), pp. 45-46.
DONI, Antonio Francesco. I marmi . Venice: Francesco Marcolini 1552-53.
DONI, Antonio Francesco. I marmi . Venice: Francesco Marcolini 1552-53. 4 parts in one, 4 o (207 x 150 mm). Collation : A-X 4 Aa-Pp 4 a 4 B-X 4 AA-MM 4 . 260 leaves, the 4 parts separately paginated. Italic type. Woodcut devices on last pages of each part within full-page scrollwork borders, title of part 1 with large globe device (from Doni's I mondi , published at the same time), parts 2-4 each with a different device, 44 woodcuts, including 3 repeats, of various sizes, including a portrait of the author on A4v of parts 1 and 3 and other portraits of contemporary Florentine writers and cultural figures, the smaller cuts set within ornamental borders of scrollwork and grotesques, the borders repeated for a few section headings, woodcut ornaments and historiated initials. (Title slightly soiled, first four quires with wormtracks in gutter margin, MM2 with marginal tear, last leaf loose, a few occasional pale stains.) Contemporary flexible vellum, gilt armorial block in center of covers (somewhat worn and soiled). Provenance : Prince Augustus Frederick Duke of Sussex (1773-1843), sixth son of King George III (armorial bookplate); acquired from John Fleming 1966. FIRST EDITION of one of the eccentric Doni's more unconventional works, consisting of a series of imaginary dialogues involving over 100 different characters, some real, some fictive, who are portrayed conversing on the marble steps ( I marmi ) of the Duomo of Florence on a wide range of unrelated topics. These include, in part 2, the invention of printing (Aa4r) and the accomplishments of Aldus Manutius lauded on fols. Cc2v-4r for his erudition, sterling character, and services rendered to literature. Some of the characters, who include a few marble statutes, voice protests over the unequal distribution of wealth in the city; others recite entire novelle or poems. Doni, a former priest, improvised his most famous books, I marmi and I mondi (see previous lot), which he wrote in the middle of Marcolini's printing shop, handing the compositor his copy as it flowed from his pen, and illustrating the works at whim with blocks from his own collection and from Marcolini's stock. Thus portraits of real individuals (including a striking profile of the printer himself, on part 4, page 15) are randomly intermingled with blocks for editions of Ariosto, inherited from other printers, or with a stray woodcut of a fool astride a crayfish (part 4, page 19), originally cut for an edition of Brant's Ship of Fools . Adams D-824; Gamba 1368; Mortimer Italian 165; Ruth Mortimer, "The Author's Image: Italian Sixteenth-Century Printed Portraits", Harvard Library Bulletin , vol. 7, no. 2 (Summer 1996), pp. 45-46.
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