100 books : The collection of a Gentleman

Petrus de Natalibus. Catalogus sanctorum ex diversis ac doctis voluminibus congestus: a reuerendissimo in Christo patre domino Petro de natalibus de venetijs: dei gratia episcopo Equilino: ac iam denuo accurate reuisus. [Strasbourg, Johann Knobloch], 1521



Folio, (32 x 22 cm), ff. [4], contemporary blindtooled pigsking binding, brass clasps, ff. CCXXXVI [i.e. 219], [1] , signature a-d8 e-i6 k8 l-r6 s-z8 A-B8 C-H6 I8, ff. [pi greco]4 e I8 are blank, title page printed in red and black



Handclolored title page.



Rare early edition of the influential legends of the saints, first published in Vicenza in 1493.



"A very valuable work with a wide circulation. In his arrangement of the various lives he follows the calendar of the Church. The collection [...] went through many editions, the last of which (the eighth) appeared in Venice, 1616" (Cath. Encyclopedia, s.v.).



Some marks of use, but a good copy in original binding.

SCARCE SECOND EDITION, SUPERSEDING THE FIRST INCOMPLETE PARMA VERSION, OF THIS POEM BY VITTORIA COLONNA

Colonna, Vittoria. Rime della divina Vettoria Colonna marchesana di Pescara, di nuovo ristampate, aggiuntovi le sue stanze, e con diligenza corrette. [...], 1539.

8vo (144x94 mm), half vellum binding, with contemporary decorated paper at boards, unbound leaves; [48] leaves
Dedication at leaf A2r to Alessandro Vercelli from Filippo Pirogallo.
Italic type.

Provenance: Handwritten ownership inscription at last page ("Questo libro è di fra ...").

References: IT\ICCU\UBOE\103982 (9 copies). OCLC, 13929675. Brunet II, 161.

RARE FIRST EDITION ; GIOVANNI ARGENTERIO , A SIXTEENTH-CENTURY MEDICAL INNOVATOR

ARGENTERIO, GIOVANNI. Ioannis Argenterii Castellonouensis ... De consultationibus medicis siue (vt vulgus vocat) de collegiandi ratione liber. Florentiae : cudebat Laurentius Torrentinus ducalis typographus, 1551.
8vo (170 x 110) XVIII century half calf binding, pp. 190, [2, errata, last page blank], signature a-m⁸, Medici coat of arms at title page.

THE FIERCE OPPOSER TO GALEN AND HIS MEDICAL THEORY

Rare First Edition of Argenterio’s treatise on consultation or collegiality in medicine, where Argenterio dismissed the study of the elements “secundum naturam”, as theorized by Galen.

The book was printed by Lorenzo Torrentino, printer that held the ducal monopoly of printing in Florence for several years, publishing only works approved by ducal authority; printing major literary, scientifical and historical works he represented an important instrument for cultural diffusion across Italy.

While discussing the importance of consultation between colleagues, debating about real cases, Argenterio attacks Galen theories: he argues that, when doing a consultation, the physician does not need to explain the natural temperament of the patient, as Galen prescribed, since often elements that are “praeter naturam” can be easily found out without recurring to those “secundum naturam”.

Book structure

•Title page
•Dedicatory letters
•Chapter 1: De hutilitate huius tractationis
•Chapter 2: Quibus constet consultandi ratio
•Chapter 3: De quibus disserendum sit in consultationibus
•Chapter 4: De quibus disserendum sit quum ponitur finis consultationis cognition
•Chapter 5: De quibus disserendum sit quum de actione aliqua consultamus
•Chapter 6: Quo ordine singula sint digerenda
•Chapter 7: De morbo quae dicenda
•Chapter 8: De symptomatis quid dicere oporteat
•Chapter 9: De Causis quae dicenda
•Chapter 10: De signis et praedictionequid dicere oporteat
•Chapter 11: De ratione agendi
•Chapter 11: De probandi, pronunciandique ration ein cinsultationibus

GIOVANNI ARGENTERIO (Castelnuovo d'Asti, 1513 – Turin, 1572) was an Italian physician and author of countless works on medicine.
He was a professor at the Medical Universities of Pisa, Naples, Turin and Mondovì. He became famous for his medical work "De Morbis", published in 1548, De consultationibus medicis, in 1551 and In artem medicinalem Galeni commentarii tres in1553.


ALESSANDRO MASSARIA first ordinary professor of practical medicine at the University of Padua during an oration at university mentioned and detailed the three main contemporary schools of thought in medicine:
•the adherents of the Greeks, and especially of Galen, among whom Massaria counted himself.
•the adherents of the Arabs, especially Avicenna.
•a third group, those who "are drawn to none of the ancients but in a remarkable way to some more recent doctrine.", and as main representant of this third group of innovators he quoted GIOVANNI AGENTERIO, probably the strongest contemporary critic of Galen.


After his death, Argenterio's ideas continued to play a part in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century endeavours to enlarge or replace Galenic explanations of disease.

The most important criticism raised by Argenterio, is addressed to the physiology of the three spirits (natural, vital and animal) and to their hierarchical localization in the liver, heart and brain.
The weakness not only of the Galenic theory, but also of valid empirical confirmations, pushed the Piedmontese doctor to prefer a conception more directly inspired by Aristotle, whose biological works were increasingly spreading from the beginning of the sixteenth century. He then replaced the three Galenic spirits with a single vital spirit constituted by the “innate heat” residing in the blood.

He then criticized the physiology of the four elementary qualities (hot, cold, dry and humid), qualities that traditionally explained the multiple empirical properties of the organism by their various combinations.

According to Argenterio, the four humors (blood, white bile, black bile, phlegm), still played an important role, with the prevalence of blood, responsible of the spreading of the spirit or vital heat throughout the organism.

Furthermore, blood is no longer produced by the liver but directly by the veins and the vital spirit flowing through them, directs and conditions the various body functions and moods.


Another significant difference from Galen’s theory is related to the action of medicines, no longer considered as carriers of elementary qualities mixing with the organism, but as principles not related to the organism itself, that will react with it on a principle of antipathy or sympathy.


CONDITIONS: light waterstain at the top margin of few internal leaves; in general a very good copy of a rare treatise.


PROVENANCE: faded ownership signature at title page.

Important Boccaccio Glossary

Alunno, Francesco. Le ricchezze della lingua volgare sopra il Boccaccio, di M. Francesco Alunno da Ferrara. Di nuouo ristampate, ricorrette et ampliate dallo istesso autore, con le dechiarationi, regole, osseruationi, & aggiontoui le Cadenze o uero Desinenze di tutte le uoci del detto Boccaccio, , e del Petrarca, per ordine di Alphabeto, col Decamerone secondo l'originale, e ristampato dall'Accademia Fiorentina, e segnato co i numeri corrispondenti all'opera con privilegio di diversi prencipi. In Vinegia : per Paulo Gherardo (at colophon per Comin da Trino), 1557.

4to, contemporary limp vellum, ff. 395, [1], Signature: A-3C⁸ 3D⁴, Author portrait at title page, with xylographic border.


Important Boccacco glossary, it contains the complete glossary of the Decameron, with the terms and phrases used by Boccaccio and reference where to find them in the work. Gamba defines it as a “beautiful, rather correct edition”, published at the same time of the Decameron published in the same year.



Conditions: Ownership notes erased at title page, traces of glue of old labels to cover the notes.

Provenance: Ex Libris Guelfo-Sitta and Dolce cagion di oblio nella vita Affannosa di Francesco Cucchiari pasted at front inside board.

Rare Parisian Edition

Boccaccio, Giovanni. Il Corbaccio. In Parigi : per Federigo Morello, 1569.

8°, limp vellum, pp. [16], 122, [6], 127-173, [1], The name of the author is taken from the incipit at f. A1r.
Contains the notes taken by Jacopo Corbinelli from the 1384 apograph manuscript by Francesco D'Amaretto Mannelli, on which Corbinelli himself conducted the edition, cfr its dedication to Vincenzo Magalotti.



Corbaccio is the most famous of the works composed by Giovanni Boccaccio after the publication of his masterpiece, the Decameron, probably dating back to 1365, after Boccaccio chose to live in retreat in Certaldo. Corbaccio is written in vulgar prose, and the most evident innovation of the work emerges in the presentation of love and the female figure



Corbaccio, disappointed by the rejection of a widow he was in love with, falls asleep and finds himself among the souls of those who in life have succumbed to the illusion of love, which are presented in the form of fairs. Corbaccio's "guide", not very Virgilian, is the soul of the widow's husband who, in exchange for the promise of the celebration of masses in his honor and the transcription of what he will reveal to him, tells Corbaccio all the defects, moral and physical, of the woman.

Scalvo, Bartolomeo. Rosariae preces ad gloriosam Dei genitricem Mariam Virginem meditationibus auctae ad vitae Christi eiusdemq. matris repetendam memoriam. A Bartholomaeo Scaluo Cremonen. Elucubratae. Mediolani : Pacificus Pontius impr, 1569 mense Martij (Mediolani : excudebat Pacificus Pontius, 1569 mense Martij)



RARE Devotional book for the veneration of Virgin Mary



4to, pp.[12], 131, [5], woodcut border composed of 9 small woodcuts on title-page, each page printed within a woodcut border, woodcut decoration (some composed of printer's ornaments), large woodcut on f. 5, 6v. F3 and M2. At f.2 headletter with the city of Cremona.

INTERESTING AND CURIOUS SOCIOLOGICAL TREATISE ON WOMEN'S DEFECTS, A SORT OF MANUAL OF MISOGYNY, WRITTEN BY GIUSEPPE PASSI

Passi, Giuseppe. I donneschi difetti di Giuseppe Passi rauennate nell'illustrissima Academia de signori Riccourati di Padoua, & informi di Rauenna l'Ardito. Aggiunntoui in questa quarta impressione per compimento di essi molte cose curiose, che ne gl'altri mancauano, degne d'esser lette, da chi disegna schiuare gl'inganni delle femmine. Con tre tauole; la prima de i capi contenuti nell'opera; la seconda degl'auttori; la terza delle cose notabili. In Venezia: appresso Vincenzo Somascho, 1618.

4to (190x136 mm), full vellum binding, handwritten title at spine; pp. [24], 380.
Xyl. printer's device at title-page.
Xyl. historated initials and head-pieces.

The first edition of this curious work came out in Milan in 1599 and was reprinted in Venice in the same year, revised and corrected; it was put on the Index in 1623 [Michel VI, 85; Index Librorum prohibitorum, 1895, 303].

Dedicated to the Prince of Urbino, Federico Feltre Dalla Rovere, it deals with the superb women, stingy, intemperate, lascivious, libidinous etc., as stated in the Tavola de' Capi.

Provenance: Handwritten ownership inscription at title-page (Jacobi Philippi Cherubini).

References: IT\ICCU\RMRE\001594. OCLC, 38612417.

First Edition


Villani, Nicola. L' vccellatura di Vincenzo Foresi all'occhiale del caualiere fra Tomaso Stigliani contro l'Adone del caualier Gio. Battista Marini e alla difesa di Girolamo Aleandro.
In Venetia: appresso Antonio Pinelli, 1630.


12mo, contemporary limp vellum, handwritten title at spine, pp. 483, [1].


First edition of the work by the poet and literary critic Nicola Villani (1590-1636) in which he intervened in the controversy on Marino's Adone caused by the poet Tommaso Stigliani with his work Il mondo Nuovo

Bentivoglio, Guido. Della guerra di Fiandra, descritta dal cardinal Bentiuoglio parte prima (- terza). Venezia : Giunti e Baba, 1645. Venezia, Giunti e Baba, 1645

3 parts in on volume 4to, contemporary half calf, engraved frontispiece.

The History of Flanders

Bentivoglio, Guido. Historia della guerra di Fiandra descritta dal cardinal Bentiuoglio Parte prima [-terza].
In Venetia : appresso Gio. Battista Indrich, 1678


4to, three volumes bound in one, contemporary stiff vellum, gilt title on leather label aat spine, pp. [4], 195, [13], 127, [5], 177, [7], title printed at frontispiece, Historia di Fiandra del cardinal Bentiuoglio, xylographic headletters and decorations.


Interesting Venetian edition of the famous Bentivoglio historical opera


Guido Bentivoglio d'Aragona (1577 - 1644) was a cardinal, archbishop and Italian historian.

He was ambassador in Flanders under Pope Paul V and then in Paris. When he returned to Rome, he became a cardinal with the title of cardinal presbyter of San Giovanni a Porta Latina directed the Holy Inquisition during the trial of Galileo.


In his writings on his experiences, he showed a great interest in political issues, presented in a more conceptual and moderate style, so that his work can be considered a work halfway between historiography and the political-diplomatic treaty.


Fine copy

First Edition


Wright, John Michael. Ragguaglio della solenne comparsa, fatta in Roma gli otto di Gennaio MDCLXXXVII. dall'Illustrissimo, et Eccellentissimo Signor Conte di Castelmaine, Ambasciatore Straordinario della Sagra Maesta di Giacomo Secondo Re d'Inghilterra, Scozia, Francia, et Ibernia, difensore della fede alla Santa Sede Apostolica, in andare publicamente all'udienza della santita di nostro Signore Papa Innocenzo Undecimo. / Dedicato all'Altezza Serenissima . della Duchessa di Modena da Giovanni Michele Writ maggiordomo del medesimo ambasciatore . Roma : nella Stamperia di Domenico Antonio Ercole, [1687].

Folio, full leather binding, inside a preservation box, pp. 92, 15 plates.


Sumptuous Festival book relating to the reception in the Vatican in 1687 of the British ambassador Castelmaine, accompanied by the painter J.M. Wright, author of the present work. The folded table, over a meter long, illustrates the setting up of the banquet in a frescoed room.


All engravings signed by A. Westerhout, G.B. Lenardi, P.M. Camers, C. Ferri, A. Cornely.

[First and only Edition]

Giannettasio Niccolo Partenio. Universalis cosmographiae elementa exposita & demonstrata a viris nobilibus In Colleg. Neapolitano S. Jesu, praeside Nic. Parthenio Giannettasio. Neapoli, ex officina typ. Jacobi Raillard, 1688

12mo, contemporary stiff vellum, pp. [10], 512

Rare edition of the Geographic work of the Italian Jesuit, poet and scholar Niccolo' Giannettasio, dedicated to teaching geography.

Very rare edition, only 9 copies mapped in Worldwide libraries