OSTAUS, Giovanni (fl. 1554-1591). La vera Perfettione del Disegno Di varie sorti di ricami E di nuovo aggiuntovi varie worti di merli, e mostre che al presente somo in uso & in pratica. Venice: Francesco di Franceschi, 1591.
OSTAUS, Giovanni (fl. 1554-1591). La vera Perfettione del Disegno Di varie sorti di ricami E di nuovo aggiuntovi varie worti di merli, e mostre che al presente somo in uso & in pratica. Venice: Francesco di Franceschi, 1591.

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OSTAUS, Giovanni (fl. 1554-1591). La vera Perfettione del Disegno Di varie sorti di ricami E di nuovo aggiuntovi varie worti di merli, e mostre che al presente somo in uso & in pratica. Venice: Francesco di Franceschi, 1591.

Oblong 8o (142 x 194 mm). Letterpress title, two text leaves, printer's woodcut device at end. 73 full-page woodcuts of patterns for various types of decorative needlework numbered VII-LXXIX, one woodcut on A2v. (Some occasional light soiling.) 17th-century vellum over pasteboard (recased). Provenance: acquired from Laurence Witten, 1964.

Early edition of Ostaus' fine lace book, following editions in 1564, 1567 and 1584. The woodcut on A2v of Tarquin looking on at Lucrezia Romana doing some needlework is signed "Iose Sal. 1557." The artist, Giovanni Porta, who took his teacher's name, Salviati, was chiefly a painter in Venice. He is probably the Iosephe Salviati of the Regola di far col compass la volute et del capitol ionico published in 1552 by Marcolini. The lace patterns show an international influence in their multitude of designs: "a striking example of the borrowing between France and Italy in the sixteenth century, probably of the school of Fontainebleau. Grotesques like A. du Cerceau, scrolls after E. deLaule, fresco of figures from G. Tory" (Mrs. Bury Palliser, History of Lace, 1902, pp. 475-6 and 484). All early editions are RARE. Berlin Kat. 1625; Lotz Modelbücher 96e.

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