Details
Lettera al Sig. Alberico Cibo principe di Massa sopra il giuoco fatto dal Gran Duca intitolato Guerra d'Amore ildi 12. di febraio 1615, in Firenze. Pisa: Giovanni Fontani, 1615.
Small 2° (270 x 193mm). Large engraved Medici arms on title, 26 etching by Jacques Callot, cut to the subject and pasted in spaces left by the printer (without that of the Indian Soldier on A2v), final blank leaf. (Lower margins lightly waterstained.) Contemporary vellum-backed boards.
FIRST EDITION of one of three entertainments that Cosimo II gave in Florence in 1615 and 1616, the Guerra d'Amore which consisted of a tournament in Santa Croce between Indamoro, King of Narsinga in Asia and Gradameto, King of Melinda in Africa. The latter was played by Maria Maddalena, the Grand Duchess, and other members of the Grandducal family and Florentine nobles acted the chief parts of the two opposing armies. Ten of the charming etchings depict the two kings, soldiers, giants and triumphal chariots (Chariot of India, Chariot of Asia, Chariot of Africa, and the Chariot of Mars and Venus) and the other sixteen, numbered 1-16, show the dispositions of the combatants during the various stages of the tournament. Callot engraved four plates to accompany Andrea Salvadori's text, printed in Florence by Zanobi Pignoni, including the procession and the combat, while proofs of the two other plates of the characters and carrousels were passed to Fontani to be cut and included in this work. The figure of the Indian soldier was to have been placed on the verso of the second leaf, however little room is left by the chariot of India. See Lieure 169 & 172.BLSTC, Italian, p.482. RARE.
Small 2° (270 x 193mm). Large engraved Medici arms on title, 26 etching by Jacques Callot, cut to the subject and pasted in spaces left by the printer (without that of the Indian Soldier on A2v), final blank leaf. (Lower margins lightly waterstained.) Contemporary vellum-backed boards.
FIRST EDITION of one of three entertainments that Cosimo II gave in Florence in 1615 and 1616, the Guerra d'Amore which consisted of a tournament in Santa Croce between Indamoro, King of Narsinga in Asia and Gradameto, King of Melinda in Africa. The latter was played by Maria Maddalena, the Grand Duchess, and other members of the Grandducal family and Florentine nobles acted the chief parts of the two opposing armies. Ten of the charming etchings depict the two kings, soldiers, giants and triumphal chariots (Chariot of India, Chariot of Asia, Chariot of Africa, and the Chariot of Mars and Venus) and the other sixteen, numbered 1-16, show the dispositions of the combatants during the various stages of the tournament. Callot engraved four plates to accompany Andrea Salvadori's text, printed in Florence by Zanobi Pignoni, including the procession and the combat, while proofs of the two other plates of the characters and carrousels were passed to Fontani to be cut and included in this work. The figure of the Indian soldier was to have been placed on the verso of the second leaf, however little room is left by the chariot of India. See Lieure 169 & 172.BLSTC, Italian, p.482. RARE.