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THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
MAROZZO, Achille (1484-1553). Opera nova. [Modena?, ca. 1540].
Details
MAROZZO, Achille (1484-1553). Opera nova. [Modena?, ca. 1540].
4 (203 x 154 mm). Woodcut title, 83 woodcuts including 6 repeats and 565 full-page. (Some occasional pale browning, title trimmed close.) 17th-century mottled sheep, spines gilt.
RARE EARLY ISSUE of the first systematic treatise on fencing, "ouvrage fondamental pour l'escrime italienne" (Sander). An edition dated 1517 has proved to be a variant of a mid-16th-century edition and the Lipperheide catalogue mentions alone an otherwise unknown 1530 edition. The present is a variant edition ascribed by Sander to an unnamed Modenese printer of ca 1540 and reuses all of the original blocks of the 1536 edition.
Antonio Bergolli, priest and printer of Modena, is known only through this 'très rare livre de Marozzo' (Fumagalli). The fine Renaissance woodcuts, which present rich costumes and were reused in subsequent editions, are occasionally signed with a monogram 'b' or 'b. R.' and have been attributed alternatively to the Roman engraver Francesco Barattini or the Venetian Giovanni Britto, which Thieme-Becker considered as doubtful. Brunet III, 1466: "ouvrage curieux"; Lipperheide TdS; Mortimer, Italian 287; Sander 4384; Thieme-B. II, 458; Thimm p.181.
4 (203 x 154 mm). Woodcut title, 83 woodcuts including 6 repeats and 565 full-page. (Some occasional pale browning, title trimmed close.) 17th-century mottled sheep, spines gilt.
RARE EARLY ISSUE of the first systematic treatise on fencing, "ouvrage fondamental pour l'escrime italienne" (Sander). An edition dated 1517 has proved to be a variant of a mid-16th-century edition and the Lipperheide catalogue mentions alone an otherwise unknown 1530 edition. The present is a variant edition ascribed by Sander to an unnamed Modenese printer of ca 1540 and reuses all of the original blocks of the 1536 edition.
Antonio Bergolli, priest and printer of Modena, is known only through this 'très rare livre de Marozzo' (Fumagalli). The fine Renaissance woodcuts, which present rich costumes and were reused in subsequent editions, are occasionally signed with a monogram 'b' or 'b. R.' and have been attributed alternatively to the Roman engraver Francesco Barattini or the Venetian Giovanni Britto, which Thieme-Becker considered as doubtful. Brunet III, 1466: "ouvrage curieux"; Lipperheide TdS; Mortimer, Italian 287; Sander 4384; Thieme-B. II, 458; Thimm p.181.