GUALTEROTTI, RAFAELLO. Feste nelle Nozze Del Serenissimo Don Francesco Medici Gran Duca di Toscana; Et della Sereniss. sua Conforte la Sig. Bianca Cappello...Con particolar Descrizione della Sbarra...Nuovamente Ristampate...(-Vaghezze Sopra Pratolino). Florence: nella Stamperia de'Giunti 1579. 2 parts in one vol., small 4to, eighteenth-century Dutch-gilt paper-covered boards, mismatched cloth slipcase, a few minor repairs to corners of the plates and one border reinforced, borders of 3 plates cropped, a tiny perforation to one plate, a few minor marginal defects to text leaves, some light spotting and marginal soiling. FIRST EDITION OF THE FULL ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION, woodcut architectural title border containing small woodcut of Florence within imprint cartouche, 16 folding etched plates by Accursio Baldi and Bastiano Marsili after Gualterotti, plus duplicates of plates I and Q printed in green, presumably inserted from another copy, plate F in the second state, the Giunta device of the Medici and Capello arms on H2r (and not H2v as in other recorded copies: this leaf, detached from its conjugate H1, was bound in backwards, with the device on the recto and the table of contents on the verso), woodcut historiated initials, quire Bb in the second setting.The most famous of early Medici fête books, describing the festivities surrounding the marriage on October 12th 1579 of Grand Duke Francesco di'Medici, son of Cosimo I, to Bianca Capello, a Venetian of noble birth who had been the Duke's mistress and then secretly wedded wife before this lavish public celebration (rumored to have cost 300,000 Ducats). No copies are known of the earlier edition whose existence is implied by the title and in the dedication; Mortimer has suggested that this first "edition", referred to as a "cartello" on fol. A4v, may have been a simple printed program for the event. Harvard Italian 223; Berlin Katalog 3034; Adams G1355; A.M. Nagler, Theatre Festivals of the Medici (New Haven 1964), pp. 49-57; I, 177; Vinet I, 605; Ruggiere 727 (the last three recording only 15 plates).Provenance: Offered by Breslauer, catalogue 78, 1953, catalogue description inserted; George Milne.

GUALTEROTTI, RAFAELLO. Feste nelle Nozze Del Serenissimo Don Francesco Medici Gran Duca di Toscana; Et della Sereniss. sua Conforte la Sig. Bianca Cappello...Con particolar Descrizione della Sbarra...Nuovamente Ristampate...(-Vaghezze Sopra Pratolino). Florence: nella Stamperia de'Giunti 1579. 2 parts in one vol., small 4to, eighteenth-century Dutch-gilt paper-covered boards, mismatched cloth slipcase, a few minor repairs to corners of the plates and one border reinforced, borders of 3 plates cropped, a tiny perforation to one plate, a few minor marginal defects to text leaves, some light spotting and marginal soiling. FIRST EDITION OF THE FULL ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION, woodcut architectural title border containing small woodcut of Florence within imprint cartouche, 16 folding etched plates by Accursio Baldi and Bastiano Marsili after Gualterotti, plus duplicates of plates I and Q printed in green, presumably inserted from another copy, plate F in the second state, the Giunta device of the Medici and Capello arms on H2r (and not H2v as in other recorded copies: this leaf, detached from its conjugate H1, was bound in backwards, with the device on the recto and the table of contents on the verso), woodcut historiated initials, quire Bb in the second setting. The most famous of early Medici fête books, describing the festivities surrounding the marriage on October 12th 1579 of Grand Duke Francesco di'Medici, son of Cosimo I, to Bianca Capello, a Venetian of noble birth who had been the Duke's mistress and then secretly wedded wife before this lavish public celebration (rumored to have cost 300,000 Ducats). No copies are known of the earlier edition whose existence is implied by the title and in the dedication; Mortimer has suggested that this first "edition", referred to as a "cartello" on fol. A4v, may have been a simple printed program for the event. Harvard Italian 223; Berlin Katalog 3034; Adams G1355; A.M. Nagler, Theatre Festivals of the Medici (New Haven 1964), pp. 49-57; I, 177; Vinet I, 605; Ruggiere 727 (the last three recording only 15 plates). Provenance: Offered by Breslauer, catalogue 78, 1953, catalogue description inserted; George Milne.

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GUALTEROTTI, RAFAELLO. Feste nelle Nozze Del Serenissimo Don Francesco Medici Gran Duca di Toscana; Et della Sereniss. sua Conforte la Sig. Bianca Cappello...Con particolar Descrizione della Sbarra...Nuovamente Ristampate...(-Vaghezze Sopra Pratolino). Florence: nella Stamperia de'Giunti 1579. 2 parts in one vol., small 4to, eighteenth-century Dutch-gilt paper-covered boards, mismatched cloth slipcase, a few minor repairs to corners of the plates and one border reinforced, borders of 3 plates cropped, a tiny perforation to one plate, a few minor marginal defects to text leaves, some light spotting and marginal soiling. FIRST EDITION OF THE FULL ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION, woodcut architectural title border containing small woodcut of Florence within imprint cartouche, 16 folding etched plates by Accursio Baldi and Bastiano Marsili after Gualterotti, plus duplicates of plates I and Q printed in green, presumably inserted from another copy, plate F in the second state, the Giunta device of the Medici and Capello arms on H2r (and not H2v as in other recorded copies: this leaf, detached from its conjugate H1, was bound in backwards, with the device on the recto and the table of contents on the verso), woodcut historiated initials, quire Bb in the second setting.

The most famous of early Medici fête books, describing the festivities surrounding the marriage on October 12th 1579 of Grand Duke Francesco di'Medici, son of Cosimo I, to Bianca Capello, a Venetian of noble birth who had been the Duke's mistress and then secretly wedded wife before this lavish public celebration (rumored to have cost 300,000 Ducats). No copies are known of the earlier edition whose existence is implied by the title and in the dedication; Mortimer has suggested that this first "edition", referred to as a "cartello" on fol. A4v, may have been a simple printed program for the event. Harvard Italian 223; Berlin Katalog 3034; Adams G1355; A.M. Nagler, Theatre Festivals of the Medici (New Haven 1964), pp. 49-57; I, 177; Vinet I, 605; Ruggiere 727 (the last three recording only 15 plates).

Provenance: Offered by Breslauer, catalogue 78, 1953, catalogue description inserted; George Milne.