Lot 84 | SCIPIONE BARBUÒ SONCINO (1529-1597), GIROLAMO PORRO (1520-1604): Sommario delle vite de’ duchi di Milano, così Visconti come Sforzeschi Raccolto da diversi auttori da M. Scipion Barbuò Soncino Dottor

Bertolami Fine Art - Sendlinger Straße 24, 80331 Monaco

SCIPIONE BARBUÒ SONCINO (1529-1597), GIROLAMO PORRO (1520-1604): Sommario delle vite de’ duchi di Milano, così Visconti come Sforzeschi Raccolto da diversi auttori da M. Scipion Barbuò Soncino Dottor

SCIPIONE BARBUÒ SONCINO (1529-1597), GIROLAMO PORRO (1520-1604)

Sommario delle vite de’ duchi di Milano, così Visconti come Sforzeschi Raccolto da diversi auttori da M. Scipion Barbuò Soncino Dottor di legge e gentilhuomo padovano, col natural ritratto di ciascun d’essi intagliato in rame In Venezia, appresso Francesco Ziletti, 1584


§ Small folio (315 x 212), 36 pages, sign : prel 2, A-D4. Slightly later beautiful red calf binding (a bit damaged, bur very firm).Engraved title page, 9 full-page engraved illustrations. Fine copy on large paper. Gilt frame and initials S.P. on both plates.

First edition. Engravings by Girolamo Porro. Barbò (or Barbuò) Soncino was an Italian jurist, biographer and historian and he is better known for this work, where the biographies of the first nine dukes of Milan are given, each accompanied by a portrait. The engravings, of exquisite workmanship, depict the full-length portraits of the nine dukes, each in an architectural frame with decorative elements and, at the bottom, the emblem of the person portrayed. They are the work of Gerolamo Porro, an engraver from Padua who spent most of his working life in Venice; he illustrated several works, among which Porcacchi’Funerali, the views for Porcacchi’s Isole and the maps for Ruscelli’s translation of Ptolemy. A rare and beautiful book.r
Ref: Michael Bryan Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical, New edition, edited by Walter Armstrong & Robert Edmund Graves, London, George Bell & Sons, 1889, Volume II, p. 310)