Details
CORTESIUS, Paulus, Bishop of Urbino (1465-1510). De cardinalatu. Castro Cortesio [near San Gimignano]: Simeone di Niccolò Nardi, alias Rufus Calchographus, 15 November 1510.
2° (312 x 221 mm). True collation uncertain, this copy signed: a10 A-E8 FF6 F-H8 I24 K-L8 M. N.4 NN8 O4 p2 P8 Q.. q6 r8 R.8 S-X8 (signing and foliation irregular). 242 leaves, FF6, I21, N11, NN8, R13 and V8 blank. Roman type, table (a2r-a9r) and Annotationes (X1-8) in double column, register (a9r-v) in 3 columns (on a9v); printed shoulder-notes. Initial spaces with guide letters, 13-line white-on-black initial L on a1r. (First leaf soiled and with small marginal tear and 2 minor marginal repairs, I2 darkened and with small marginal repair, some marginal foxing, a few small wormholes to last dozen leaves.) Late 18th-century vellum over pasteboard, smooth spine gilt, morocco lettering-piece.
Provenance: scattered contemporary marginalia; CARDINAL GIUSEPPE RENATO IMPERIALI (1651-1737), inkstamp on first leaf (G. Fontanini, Bibliothecae Josephi Renati Imperialis Catalogus, Rome, 1711, p. 141; sale, Catalogo della Libreria del Cardinal G.R. Imperiali, Palazzo Imperiali alla Piazza de' SS. Apostoli, Rome, 1793-96, p. 175); "Ex libris D. ... Garofoli... Laodicenorum", inscription dated 1839 on front flyleaf; "Cat. Marefoschi", 19th-century paper label on front pastedown, with shelfmark "K.XI." in another hand.
FIRST EDITION, very rare, of Cortesius's treatise on the virtues required of cardinals of the Church. A veritable manual of comportment touching every aspect of a cardinal's life, the work spells out both the written and tacit rules and regulations governing the lives of these highest officials of the church. From the moral and philosophical virtues and the level of culture and education required of a cardinal, Cortesius passes to matters more terre-à-terre: what kind of dwelling he should reside in, how it should be decorated and in what part of the city, the cardinal's personal hygiene (including which thermal baths he should frequent), the proper conduct of his relations with family members, methods to avoid succumbing to the passions (he counsels the practice of music), and so on. An interesting chapter is devoted to the proper use of the Italian language in sermons and the different types of sermons preached in the various regions of Italy. The last book treats more purely ecclesiastical matters: elections, ceremonies, the powers of the cardinal, simony, schisms, and heresy.
In order to print this, his life's work, Cortesius invited the Sienese printer Simone di Niccolò Nardi to set up a press in the cardinal's own castle of Castro Cortesio near San Gimignano. The cardinal died suddenly before the printing had been finished (his death is described in the preface by Raffaelo Volterrano), and the edition was completed under the direction of his brother Lattanzio. The amateurish nature of the endeavor, and the author's own indecisiveness, account for the extravagantly bizarre collation, inconsistent signing, frequent misfoliation, and occasionally jumbled type. "The author... must have been a sore affliction to his printer, for the work shows numerous changes of mind and in its collation and foliation the resulting volume is probably one of the most eccentric ever printed" (Norton, p. 107). Adams describes the Cambridge copy as having an unsigned bifolium inserted after quire a. This does not appear in the present copy, which however contains 3 extra leaves in quire Q. The signing of this copy also differs significantly from the formula given by Adams.
AN IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPY, owned by a successor to Cortese, the Cardinal Giuseppe Renato Imperiali, whose library was praised by Bernard de Montfaucon in his Diarium Italicum (1702).
Because of the variations in the collation of the known copies of this edition, this lot is sold not subject to return.
Adams C-2710; BM/STC Italian, p. 200; Fumagalli, Lexicon, pp. 71-72; Norton, Italian Printers, p. 107.
2° (312 x 221 mm). True collation uncertain, this copy signed: a10 A-E8 FF6 F-H8 I24 K-L8 M. N.4 NN8 O4 p2 P8 Q.. q6 r8 R.8 S-X8 (signing and foliation irregular). 242 leaves, FF6, I21, N11, NN8, R13 and V8 blank. Roman type, table (a2r-a9r) and Annotationes (X1-8) in double column, register (a9r-v) in 3 columns (on a9v); printed shoulder-notes. Initial spaces with guide letters, 13-line white-on-black initial L on a1r. (First leaf soiled and with small marginal tear and 2 minor marginal repairs, I2 darkened and with small marginal repair, some marginal foxing, a few small wormholes to last dozen leaves.) Late 18th-century vellum over pasteboard, smooth spine gilt, morocco lettering-piece.
Provenance: scattered contemporary marginalia; CARDINAL GIUSEPPE RENATO IMPERIALI (1651-1737), inkstamp on first leaf (G. Fontanini, Bibliothecae Josephi Renati Imperialis Catalogus, Rome, 1711, p. 141; sale, Catalogo della Libreria del Cardinal G.R. Imperiali, Palazzo Imperiali alla Piazza de' SS. Apostoli, Rome, 1793-96, p. 175); "Ex libris D. ... Garofoli... Laodicenorum", inscription dated 1839 on front flyleaf; "Cat. Marefoschi", 19th-century paper label on front pastedown, with shelfmark "K.XI." in another hand.
FIRST EDITION, very rare, of Cortesius's treatise on the virtues required of cardinals of the Church. A veritable manual of comportment touching every aspect of a cardinal's life, the work spells out both the written and tacit rules and regulations governing the lives of these highest officials of the church. From the moral and philosophical virtues and the level of culture and education required of a cardinal, Cortesius passes to matters more terre-à-terre: what kind of dwelling he should reside in, how it should be decorated and in what part of the city, the cardinal's personal hygiene (including which thermal baths he should frequent), the proper conduct of his relations with family members, methods to avoid succumbing to the passions (he counsels the practice of music), and so on. An interesting chapter is devoted to the proper use of the Italian language in sermons and the different types of sermons preached in the various regions of Italy. The last book treats more purely ecclesiastical matters: elections, ceremonies, the powers of the cardinal, simony, schisms, and heresy.
In order to print this, his life's work, Cortesius invited the Sienese printer Simone di Niccolò Nardi to set up a press in the cardinal's own castle of Castro Cortesio near San Gimignano. The cardinal died suddenly before the printing had been finished (his death is described in the preface by Raffaelo Volterrano), and the edition was completed under the direction of his brother Lattanzio. The amateurish nature of the endeavor, and the author's own indecisiveness, account for the extravagantly bizarre collation, inconsistent signing, frequent misfoliation, and occasionally jumbled type. "The author... must have been a sore affliction to his printer, for the work shows numerous changes of mind and in its collation and foliation the resulting volume is probably one of the most eccentric ever printed" (Norton, p. 107). Adams describes the Cambridge copy as having an unsigned bifolium inserted after quire a. This does not appear in the present copy, which however contains 3 extra leaves in quire Q. The signing of this copy also differs significantly from the formula given by Adams.
AN IMPORTANT ASSOCIATION COPY, owned by a successor to Cortese, the Cardinal Giuseppe Renato Imperiali, whose library was praised by Bernard de Montfaucon in his Diarium Italicum (1702).
Because of the variations in the collation of the known copies of this edition, this lot is sold not subject to return.
Adams C-2710; BM/STC Italian, p. 200; Fumagalli, Lexicon, pp. 71-72; Norton, Italian Printers, p. 107.