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Triompho di fortuna. Venice: Agostino de' Zanni, for Jacopo Giunta, 1527.
Details
FANTI, Sigismondo (fl. 16th century)
Triompho di fortuna. Venice: Agostino de' Zanni, for Jacopo Giunta, 1527.
The only complete copy of this lavishly illustrated fortune-telling book to come to market in the last 50 years; the Schaefer copy. It consists largely of woodcuts and presents a game in which the player moves from figures of Fortune to houses, wheels, spheres and astrologers, determined on a throw of dice or time of day when the book is consulted. A sculptor working in marble is identified as Michelangelo. Two issues are known, distinguished by the date of 1526 or 1527 in the colophon; the present issue is the later one. Adams F-150; BM Italian 243; Brunet II, 1178; Essling p.652; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 180; Sander 2653.
Folio (343 x 230mm). Allegorical title-page printed in red and black signed 'I.M.' but probably by Dosso Dossi after Baldassare Peruzzi, 'Proemio' leaf within four-piece woodcut border with side-pieces signed 'I.C.' (Nagler Monogrammisten III, 2061), the whole extensively illustrated with 257 woodcuts in the preliminary text, mostly small 18mm blocks with repetitions, 24 full-page illustrations composed of medium-sized woodcuts comprising 12 of fortune and 12 of noble houses, printed four to a page within woodcut borders and text printed in red and black, 72 full-page illlustrations of twin fortune wheels within borders, utlizing eight designs for the borders with repeats, 36 full-page illustrations of spheres within borders of four different designs with repeats, final section composed of small woodcuts of 8 astrologers and 4 sybils, one to a page, repeated, surrounded by 11 numbered diagrams of astrological signs using the 18mm blocks at their centres and with quatrains in italic type below, final leaf with woodcut astrological key, colophon and woodcut device (Kristeller 217 with 'L' altered to I'), floriated woodcut initials (lower corner of title with very small chip, title lightly stained and following 2 leaves with light staining confined to lower portion, occasional faint browning and finger-soiling, otherwise a fresh copy). Mid 16th-century South German brown morocco, covers panelled with an outer triple blind fillet border enclosing a panel border of an arabesque tool repeated between triple blind fillets, arabesque tool at outer corners, fleuron at inner corners, centerpiece of arabesque tool repeated four times with single fleuron above and below, spine tooled in compartments, all but fillets tooled in black, '43' inscribed in ink at head of fore-edge (lacking ties); modern slipcase. Provenance: Otto Schafer (sold Sotheby's 8 December 1994, lot 76) – Victor von Steding, signature on rear pastedown).
Triompho di fortuna. Venice: Agostino de' Zanni, for Jacopo Giunta, 1527.
The only complete copy of this lavishly illustrated fortune-telling book to come to market in the last 50 years; the Schaefer copy. It consists largely of woodcuts and presents a game in which the player moves from figures of Fortune to houses, wheels, spheres and astrologers, determined on a throw of dice or time of day when the book is consulted. A sculptor working in marble is identified as Michelangelo. Two issues are known, distinguished by the date of 1526 or 1527 in the colophon; the present issue is the later one. Adams F-150; BM Italian 243; Brunet II, 1178; Essling p.652; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 180; Sander 2653.
Folio (343 x 230mm). Allegorical title-page printed in red and black signed 'I.M.' but probably by Dosso Dossi after Baldassare Peruzzi, 'Proemio' leaf within four-piece woodcut border with side-pieces signed 'I.C.' (Nagler Monogrammisten III, 2061), the whole extensively illustrated with 257 woodcuts in the preliminary text, mostly small 18mm blocks with repetitions, 24 full-page illustrations composed of medium-sized woodcuts comprising 12 of fortune and 12 of noble houses, printed four to a page within woodcut borders and text printed in red and black, 72 full-page illlustrations of twin fortune wheels within borders, utlizing eight designs for the borders with repeats, 36 full-page illustrations of spheres within borders of four different designs with repeats, final section composed of small woodcuts of 8 astrologers and 4 sybils, one to a page, repeated, surrounded by 11 numbered diagrams of astrological signs using the 18mm blocks at their centres and with quatrains in italic type below, final leaf with woodcut astrological key, colophon and woodcut device (Kristeller 217 with 'L' altered to I'), floriated woodcut initials (lower corner of title with very small chip, title lightly stained and following 2 leaves with light staining confined to lower portion, occasional faint browning and finger-soiling, otherwise a fresh copy). Mid 16th-century South German brown morocco, covers panelled with an outer triple blind fillet border enclosing a panel border of an arabesque tool repeated between triple blind fillets, arabesque tool at outer corners, fleuron at inner corners, centerpiece of arabesque tool repeated four times with single fleuron above and below, spine tooled in compartments, all but fillets tooled in black, '43' inscribed in ink at head of fore-edge (lacking ties); modern slipcase. Provenance: Otto Schafer (sold Sotheby's 8 December 1994, lot 76) – Victor von Steding, signature on rear pastedown).
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