Details
BRUNUS ARETINUS, Leonardus (1369-1444). De bello Italico adversus Gothos gesto. Foligno: Johann Neumeister and Aemilianus de Orfinis, 1470.
Chancery 2° and royal half-sheet 4° (280 x 202 mm) (sheets 1/2.11, 1/3.10 and 4/1.10 are quarto, the rest folio). Collation: [112 2-610 712] (1/1 blank, 1/2r text, 7/11r colophon, 7/12 blank). 72 leaves (of 74, without the first and final blanks). 29 lines. Type 1:124R. One 6-line, three 5-line and one 3-line initial spaces. The four larger initials finely illuminated by a contemporary Italian artist in gold leaf on green, red and blue grounds with white-vine interlace and leafy flourishes punctuated by gold bezants, the first initial with marginal extensions, the 3-line initial supplied in blue ink. (First leaf a bit foxed and with tiny marginal rust-hole.) Modern plain wrappers, morocco folding box.
Provenance: contemporary marginalia.
FIRST EDITION. THE FIRST BOOK PRINTED AT FOLIGNO, AND ONE OF ONLY THREE BOOKS PRINTED THERE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Johann Neumeister, a native of Mainz, where he was almost certainly apprenticed to either Fust and Schoeffer or Gutenberg, is thought to have been among the "Moguntini calligrafi" recorded as working in Foligno as early as 1463. The other "calligrafi" have been identified with a compositor, a punchcutter, and a calligrapher, the first two of whom may be the "sotii" [i.e., socii] referred to in the colophon of the present work. Neumeister obtained the patronage of the papal mintmaster Aemiliano Orfini, who set up a printing press in his own house and sponsored this and the second of the three Neumeister editions, a reprint of the Sweynheym and Pannartz 1469 edition of Cicero, Epistolae familiares. The third product of Neumeister's press, and the last book to be printed at Foligno until well into the sixteenth century was the great Foligno Dante.
Although Bruni claimed the authorship of this first printed history of the barbaric invasions of Italy and the resulting wars, his role was actually limited to translating and editing the work by the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea (see lot 81).
The colophon of this copy agrees with the readings of the British Library copy IB. 25403.
HC 1558; BMC VI, 599 (IB. 25403); GW 5600; IGI 2188; Oates 2234; Pellechet 1112; Proctor 5721; Goff B-1234.
Chancery 2° and royal half-sheet 4° (280 x 202 mm) (sheets 1/2.11, 1/3.10 and 4/1.10 are quarto, the rest folio). Collation: [112 2-610 712] (1/1 blank, 1/2r text, 7/11r colophon, 7/12 blank). 72 leaves (of 74, without the first and final blanks). 29 lines. Type 1:124R. One 6-line, three 5-line and one 3-line initial spaces. The four larger initials finely illuminated by a contemporary Italian artist in gold leaf on green, red and blue grounds with white-vine interlace and leafy flourishes punctuated by gold bezants, the first initial with marginal extensions, the 3-line initial supplied in blue ink. (First leaf a bit foxed and with tiny marginal rust-hole.) Modern plain wrappers, morocco folding box.
Provenance: contemporary marginalia.
FIRST EDITION. THE FIRST BOOK PRINTED AT FOLIGNO, AND ONE OF ONLY THREE BOOKS PRINTED THERE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Johann Neumeister, a native of Mainz, where he was almost certainly apprenticed to either Fust and Schoeffer or Gutenberg, is thought to have been among the "Moguntini calligrafi" recorded as working in Foligno as early as 1463. The other "calligrafi" have been identified with a compositor, a punchcutter, and a calligrapher, the first two of whom may be the "sotii" [i.e., socii] referred to in the colophon of the present work. Neumeister obtained the patronage of the papal mintmaster Aemiliano Orfini, who set up a printing press in his own house and sponsored this and the second of the three Neumeister editions, a reprint of the Sweynheym and Pannartz 1469 edition of Cicero, Epistolae familiares. The third product of Neumeister's press, and the last book to be printed at Foligno until well into the sixteenth century was the great Foligno Dante.
Although Bruni claimed the authorship of this first printed history of the barbaric invasions of Italy and the resulting wars, his role was actually limited to translating and editing the work by the Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea (see lot 81).
The colophon of this copy agrees with the readings of the British Library copy IB. 25403.
HC 1558; BMC VI, 599 (IB. 25403); GW 5600; IGI 2188; Oates 2234; Pellechet 1112; Proctor 5721; Goff B-1234.