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SCAINO DA SALO, Antonio (1524-1616). Trattato del giuoco della palla . Venice: Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari and brothers, 1555.
SCAINO DA SALO, Antonio (1524-1616). Trattato del giuoco della palla . Venice: Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari and brothers, 1555. 3 parts in one volume, 8° (144 x 85mm). Giolito phoenix device and woodcut cartouche surrounding first word on title, 6 double-page folding woodcut plates of equipment and court plans inserted in signatures K and L with starred page numbers and with text on verso of illustrations continuing the text of the regular signatures, type ornaments, woodcut grotesque and historiated initials, larger Giolito device on V7v, with final blank. (Plates mounted and four with repaired tear, tiny stain to M1, light waterstaining to V7 and final blank.) Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine (three tiny wormholes to the spine); 19th-century calf box (front joint repaired; rear join split). Provenance : unidentified 1664 ownership inscription to endpapers -- Donald & Mary Hyde (book label) -- Chiesa, Libri Antichi (bookseller's ticket). FIRST EDITION OF THE THE FIRST BOOK ON THE GAME OF TENNIS , dedicated to Alfonso d'Este (1535-95), last Duke of Ferrara. The initial on *2r contains the arms of the Orsini family and a large 7-line initial on S8r depicts tennis. Scaino, priest and theologian, was apparently promped to write his book after a dispute arose during a game of tennis. In it he establishes rules and a scoring system for the game, sets the standard court sizes, and mentions some principles of etiquette to be practiced between players. It also covers many forms of tennis, his definition of 'ball-game' in W.W. Kershaw's English translation (London, 1951) being: 'a contest between at least two players who, placed one on one side and the other on the other as adversaries, do battle together with a solid and round instrument made from the skin of an animal and capable of bouncing, called a ball, each doing his utmost to obtain victory for himself by striking the ball as far as possible towards his adversary, striking it sometimes at the volley in mid-air, sometimes after the first bound, and sometimes at the half-volley ....' (ch. iii, pt. II). The key differences in the game depend on whether it is played with a solid or air-filled ball; with the open hand or a clenched first; with the fist without an instrument or with the fist with an instrument; in the open or with a cord (ch v, pt. II). Two chapters in part II (xvi and xvii) describe the larger and smaller court for the cord game with the racket, and are followed by two chapters (xviii and xix) on the closed and open court for the cord game with the hand. While anxious to be impartial, Scaino admits to being a player of 'il guioco della corda', the closest equivalent to present day real tennis and, indeed, lawn tennis, describing it (ch. xx) as 'the rarest and most valued' form of ball-game because it is confined to a limited space, making it less subject to chance as well as requiring a greater degree of art and skill. Tennis historians including Marshall, Noel and Clark, and the late Lord Aberdare have all emphasised the enormous value of Scaino, without whom there would scarcely be an adequate foundation for the history of the sport. Adams II, S-547; Brunet V, 178, Supplement II, 606; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 465; Garnett p. 288; Henderson p. 176.