Details
STELLA, Joannes (fl. 1500). Vite ducentorum et triginta summorum pontificum. Venice: Bernardino dei Vitali, 10 February 1505.
4° (187 x 140 mm). Collation: A-L4 M2. 46 leaves. Gothic type, shoulder notes (the number of the pope and the year of his ordination). Large title woodcut of a seated pope flanked by two armorial shields with the crossed keys of St. Peter and the oak tree of Pope Julius II, 1 black-line and 2 white-on-black woodcut initials, initial spaces with guide letters. (Two small wormholes to first 10 leaves, lightly washed, leaving some slight uniform discoloration, occasional faint small marginal dampstain.) 19th or early 20th-century box calf, sides gilt panelled, spine lettered in gilt, gilt edges.
Provenance: contemporary marginal note on M1v, next to the entry on the last Pope, Julius II, manuscript index on last leaf of a selection of popes (both notes cropped); early inscription on title identifying the author, ms numeration 57 on title-page.
FIRST EDITION of Stella's series of summary biographies of the 230 popes to that date, from Peter the Apostle to Julius II, dedicated to Cardinal Domenico Grimano, patriarch of Aquileia. The text differs substantially from Platina's later and popular history of the popes, the source for several subsequent works on the same subject. Stella's work met with a localized succss, being reprinted twice in Basel in 1507. The title woodcut was also used for a papal bull of Julius II printed in Venice in the same year.
BM/STC Italian, p. 647; Brunet V, 529; Essling 1503; Harvard/Mortimer Italian 486; Sander 7074.
4° (187 x 140 mm). Collation: A-L4 M2. 46 leaves. Gothic type, shoulder notes (the number of the pope and the year of his ordination). Large title woodcut of a seated pope flanked by two armorial shields with the crossed keys of St. Peter and the oak tree of Pope Julius II, 1 black-line and 2 white-on-black woodcut initials, initial spaces with guide letters. (Two small wormholes to first 10 leaves, lightly washed, leaving some slight uniform discoloration, occasional faint small marginal dampstain.) 19th or early 20th-century box calf, sides gilt panelled, spine lettered in gilt, gilt edges.
Provenance: contemporary marginal note on M1v, next to the entry on the last Pope, Julius II, manuscript index on last leaf of a selection of popes (both notes cropped); early inscription on title identifying the author, ms numeration 57 on title-page.
FIRST EDITION of Stella's series of summary biographies of the 230 popes to that date, from Peter the Apostle to Julius II, dedicated to Cardinal Domenico Grimano, patriarch of Aquileia. The text differs substantially from Platina's later and popular history of the popes, the source for several subsequent works on the same subject. Stella's work met with a localized succss, being reprinted twice in Basel in 1507. The title woodcut was also used for a papal bull of Julius II printed in Venice in the same year.
BM/STC Italian, p. 647; Brunet V, 529; Essling 1503; Harvard/Mortimer Italian 486; Sander 7074.