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GUALTEROTTI, Raffaello (1543-1639). Feste nelle nozze Del Don Francesco Medici Et sua Consorte Bianca Cappello. Florence: Giunta Press, 1579.
Two parts in one volume, 4o (210 x 145 mm. Collation: A-G4 H2. 16 plates etched by Accursio Baldi and Bastiano Marsili after designs by Gualterotti, lettered A-B + C-P (plate F in first state, with Venus' head facing forward); Aa-Cc4 (first setting of the outer forme of sheet Bb). Woodcut architectural title-border in second state, adding the grand-ducal crown above the Medici arms and and a view of Florence, printer's woodcut device of the Medici-Cappello arms at the end of part 1, woodcut historiated initials. (Narrow upper margin of plate G renewed, a few plates shaved.) 20th-century brown morocco, edges gilt, by Lortic. Provenance: acquired from Ars Libri, 1979.
FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION (a briefer, unillustrated description was published earlier, but apparently no copy survives), the issue with all etchings printed in black. The pageant and entertainments, culminating in a tournament, officially celebrated the second marriage of Francesco I of Tuscany (1541-1587), following the death of his first wife Joanna of Austria, to his long-time mistress, Bianca Cappello of Venice (1548-1587), which had been secretly concluded the year before the announcement and these festivities. The plates document the progress of the spectacle, the courtyard of the Palazzo Pitti (with a cartouche stating the three Florentine artists' names), the elaborately decorated competing carriages and galleys, machinery, and costumed actors. The judges awarded the first prize to the Marittima Pompa show (plate N). The day before the great Sbarra the coronation of the new Grand Duchess had taken place in the Sala del Consiglio. A full account of the events is given by A.M. Nagler, Theatre Festivals of the Medici (Yale UP, 1964), chapter 4. Bertelà & Tofani, Feste e Apparati Medicei (1979), pp. 45-55; Camerini, Giunti 87; Mortimer Italian 223.
Two parts in one volume, 4o (210 x 145 mm. Collation: A-G4 H2. 16 plates etched by Accursio Baldi and Bastiano Marsili after designs by Gualterotti, lettered A-B + C-P (plate F in first state, with Venus' head facing forward); Aa-Cc4 (first setting of the outer forme of sheet Bb). Woodcut architectural title-border in second state, adding the grand-ducal crown above the Medici arms and and a view of Florence, printer's woodcut device of the Medici-Cappello arms at the end of part 1, woodcut historiated initials. (Narrow upper margin of plate G renewed, a few plates shaved.) 20th-century brown morocco, edges gilt, by Lortic. Provenance: acquired from Ars Libri, 1979.
FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION (a briefer, unillustrated description was published earlier, but apparently no copy survives), the issue with all etchings printed in black. The pageant and entertainments, culminating in a tournament, officially celebrated the second marriage of Francesco I of Tuscany (1541-1587), following the death of his first wife Joanna of Austria, to his long-time mistress, Bianca Cappello of Venice (1548-1587), which had been secretly concluded the year before the announcement and these festivities. The plates document the progress of the spectacle, the courtyard of the Palazzo Pitti (with a cartouche stating the three Florentine artists' names), the elaborately decorated competing carriages and galleys, machinery, and costumed actors. The judges awarded the first prize to the Marittima Pompa show (plate N). The day before the great Sbarra the coronation of the new Grand Duchess had taken place in the Sala del Consiglio. A full account of the events is given by A.M. Nagler, Theatre Festivals of the Medici (Yale UP, 1964), chapter 4. Bertelà & Tofani, Feste e Apparati Medicei (1979), pp. 45-55; Camerini, Giunti 87; Mortimer Italian 223.