Beschreibung:

VESPASIANO DA BISTICCI (ca 1422-1498). La Vita della Alessandra di Bardo de' Bardi . Manuscrit enluminé, dédié et donné par le plus célèbre libraire de la Renaissance à Giovanni de' Bardi [Florence, vers 1480]. Avec la reliure originale. in Italian, ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Florence, ca. 1480] 207 x 143mm. 62 leaves; 1 2 , 2-5 10 , 6 8 , 7 1 2 , COMPLETE, abbreviated catchwords in the inner lower corner of the ruling, 18 lines written in brown-black ink in an upright humanistic bookhand between two pairs of vertical and 18 horizontal lines ruled in brown ink, justification: 123 x 73mm, dedication and prefatory title in lines alternately of burnished gold and blue capitals, subsequent titles in red capitals, marginal titles in pink in humanistic minuscule, PAGE- OPENING WITH ILLUMINATED DEDICATORY TITLEPIECE, ILLUMINATED INITIAL, BORDER AND COAT OF ARMS SUPPORTED BY TWO PUTTI, of burnished gold with foliage and flowers of green, blue and pink, interspersed with gold disks with penwork tendrils, a similar four-line ILLUMINATED INITIAL (some thumbing to lower corner of first three folios, slight offsetting of pigment on opening spread, blue inital on f. 51 smudged). ORIGINAL BINDING of panelled brown goatskin, tooled in blind with rope-work border, sections and central roundels, some annular dots and disks in painted gold, upper cover with four brass studs securing remains of green silk-covered clasps, lower cover with brass shell-shaped catches, spine in four compartments (small losses to both covers, corners rubbed, upper clasps missing, spine worn over bands and loss at head and foot), modern black morocco box. THIS IS A REMARKABLE AND EVOCATIVE BOOK, ESSENTIALLY UNALTERED SINCE IT LEFT VESPASIANO'S HANDS. The substantial vellum used for the dedication titlepage still has untrimmed hairs left by the parchment maker. PROVENANCE: 1. Giovanni de Bardi: although the copy of the Vita dell'Alessandra de' Bardi in Florence (Arch. di Stato, Strozzi Ugoccioni 39) also contains the Bardi arms, the present copy is the more extensively decorated and is evidently THE DEDICATION MANUSCRIPT. 2. Agnolo di Barnardo de Bardi; ownership note and notarial mark on final endpaper, this is presumably the Agnolo di Barnardo who was the grandson of Giovanni de Bardi. 3. Hoepli, 1959 4. Martin Bodmer 5. H.P. Kraus, New York, Cat.126, 1971, no.20. CONTENTS: f.2v Title and dedication; ff.3-7 Prohemio di Vespasiano a Giovanni de Bardi ; ff.9-50v Vita della Alessandra de Bardi ; ff.51-62v Brieve descritione di Vespasiano di tutti quegli anno composte vite Vespasiano da Bisticci was the pre-eminent Florentine bookseller and by 1460 the main provider of manuscripts to princes, prelates and scholars across Europe. The manuscripts he supplied to Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino and Mathias Corvinus, King of Hungary were the most extensive, prestigious and famous examples of such undertakings, but he also produced more modest books - some on commission, others speculatively - and, although humanistic books were his preferred product they were by no means all of this type. From early on in his career Vespasiano had a reputation as a collector and disseminator of news and to some extent his biographies of illustrious contemporaries could be seen as an extension of that. The 105 Vite include Popes, rulers, statesmen, prelates and scholars. Alessandra de' Bardi's Life is thought to be one of the earliest and is the longest of a woman. In the dedicatory prohemio Vespasiano explains how he came to write about her after discussing her with Giovanni and Alessandro de' Bardi as an example of temperance and integrity. Alessandra (ca. 1412-65), the daughter of Bardo di Alessandro de' Bardi, was a noted beauty who was one of the well-born young women chosen to act as hostesses to the Ambassadors of the Emperor Sigismond on their visit to Florence in 1432. In the same year she married Palla Strozzi but within two years both their families were ad