Details
LEONE, Ambrogio (d. ca. 1524). De Nola. Venice: Joannes Rubeus, Vercellensis, 4 September 1514.
2° (308 x 210 mm). Collation: a-i6 k4 A-B4. 66 leaves. Roman type, a few passages in Greek, index in two columns. 4 full-page engraved maps and plans by Girolamo Mocetto (the first signed "HIE. MOCE."), printed in black, bound in after fols. a3, b4, d5, and e3, one white-on-black woodcut headpiece, woodcut initials in 5 sizes, most white-on-black. (Some marginal dampstaining and soiling, a few small stains, small wormhole through last 2 quires, fore-border of plate 2 shaved.) 18th-century vellum over flexible pasteboard, edges stained green.
Provenance: 17th(?)-century marginalia on c4r; plate 1 with manuscript addition of a "road toward Naples", labeled "via neap. versus", in similar hand.
FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST BOOKS ON ARCHAEOLOGY. Nola, one of the oldest cities of Campania, was conquered by the Romans in 313 B.C. and became a Roman colony under Augustus. Leone, a native of Nola, was a physician and scholar whose fluency in translating Greek earned him admission to Aldus Manutius's elite circle of humanists. Numerous ancient ruins still existed in Nola in the sixteenth century; Leone's acquaintance with them was remarkably thorough, enabling him to reconstruct convincing plans of the ancient town.
Girolamo Mocetto's engravings of Nola are the earliest known archeological plans of an Italian city other than Rome. They are also the only datable works of Mocetto, a member of a family of glass painters from Murano and an assistant of Giovanni Bellini. The engravings consist of: 1) a bird's-eye view-plan of the Bay of Naples and surrounding area, showing Nola, centrally placed, and Vesuvius, Herculaneum, Pompei, Naples, Stabia, Castellamare, etc.; 2) plan of the ancient town of Nola; 3) plan of the modern town of Nola; and 4) view of the modern town of Nola with its fortifications. The first plate is notable for the accuracy of the location of Nola and of the other still existing towns and topographical features of Campania. The second plate shows the principal monuments of the ancient town, located within its circular wall, and gives the location of the much smaller modern town within the walls.
Although the printer Rubeus or Rosso had left blank pages for the text sheets to be run through the engraving press, the engravings were printed on separate sheets (possibly Rosso was unable to obtain a suitable engraving press), which were then either bound in directly, as here, or mounted on inserted blank leaves. Copies are known in which the engravings are printed in colored inks. The first three plates are each known in two states: in the present copy plate 1 is in the first state (without flowering plants and without the 3 additional boats in the bay), and plates 2 and 3 are in the second state (as in most copies), with the bathhouse in plate 2 reengraved and 3 flowering plants added at the bottom of plate 3.
Adams L-479; Brunet III, 982; Harvard/Mortimer Italian 255; Sander 3914.
2° (308 x 210 mm). Collation: a-i6 k4 A-B4. 66 leaves. Roman type, a few passages in Greek, index in two columns. 4 full-page engraved maps and plans by Girolamo Mocetto (the first signed "HIE. MOCE."), printed in black, bound in after fols. a3, b4, d5, and e3, one white-on-black woodcut headpiece, woodcut initials in 5 sizes, most white-on-black. (Some marginal dampstaining and soiling, a few small stains, small wormhole through last 2 quires, fore-border of plate 2 shaved.) 18th-century vellum over flexible pasteboard, edges stained green.
Provenance: 17th(?)-century marginalia on c4r; plate 1 with manuscript addition of a "road toward Naples", labeled "via neap. versus", in similar hand.
FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST BOOKS ON ARCHAEOLOGY. Nola, one of the oldest cities of Campania, was conquered by the Romans in 313 B.C. and became a Roman colony under Augustus. Leone, a native of Nola, was a physician and scholar whose fluency in translating Greek earned him admission to Aldus Manutius's elite circle of humanists. Numerous ancient ruins still existed in Nola in the sixteenth century; Leone's acquaintance with them was remarkably thorough, enabling him to reconstruct convincing plans of the ancient town.
Girolamo Mocetto's engravings of Nola are the earliest known archeological plans of an Italian city other than Rome. They are also the only datable works of Mocetto, a member of a family of glass painters from Murano and an assistant of Giovanni Bellini. The engravings consist of: 1) a bird's-eye view-plan of the Bay of Naples and surrounding area, showing Nola, centrally placed, and Vesuvius, Herculaneum, Pompei, Naples, Stabia, Castellamare, etc.; 2) plan of the ancient town of Nola; 3) plan of the modern town of Nola; and 4) view of the modern town of Nola with its fortifications. The first plate is notable for the accuracy of the location of Nola and of the other still existing towns and topographical features of Campania. The second plate shows the principal monuments of the ancient town, located within its circular wall, and gives the location of the much smaller modern town within the walls.
Although the printer Rubeus or Rosso had left blank pages for the text sheets to be run through the engraving press, the engravings were printed on separate sheets (possibly Rosso was unable to obtain a suitable engraving press), which were then either bound in directly, as here, or mounted on inserted blank leaves. Copies are known in which the engravings are printed in colored inks. The first three plates are each known in two states: in the present copy plate 1 is in the first state (without flowering plants and without the 3 additional boats in the bay), and plates 2 and 3 are in the second state (as in most copies), with the bathhouse in plate 2 reengraved and 3 flowering plants added at the bottom of plate 3.
Adams L-479; Brunet III, 982; Harvard/Mortimer Italian 255; Sander 3914.