Berni, Francesco. Orlando innamorato nuovamente composto da M. Francesco Berni fiorentino. Venice: heirs of Lucantonio Giunta, (October) 1541
Original edition of a rewriting of Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato into the Tuscan dialect, edited by Giovanni Alberto Albicante of Milan. Berni (1497–1535) had completed the work about 1530, and in 1531 was granted a papal privilege and then a privilege from the Venetian Senate; however, for uncertain reasons, he withheld publication. This first edition was published posthumously in two separate issues, one by the Milanese publisher Andrea Calvo (dated 1542), the other in Venice by the Giuntas (dated 1541). Quires B-II are identical in both issues (printed at the Calvo press); the preliminary and final gatherings (KK in the Milan issue; KK, LL in the Venice issue) are different settings, presumably to give the semblance of separate editions (see Weaver, “The Spurious text of Francesco Berni’s ‘Rifacimento’ of Matteo Maria Boiardo’s ‘Orlando Innamorato,’” in Modern Philology 75 [1977], pp. 111–131).
This copy is from the library of the Roman nobleman Domenico Jacovacci (1604–1661) and displays on its covers his family’s heraldic insignia (Sei crescenti d’argento, disposti 2-1-2-1), supported by an erect lion, on the cross of the military order of Calatrava (a title conferred on Domenico in September 1625). Domenico designed this achievement himself, and versions of it illustrate a family memoir he wrote ca. 1635–1638 and a multi-volume genealogical compendium he completed in 1642 (“Historiae familiae suae” [Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, Ms. 1604]; “Repertorii di famiglie” [Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ott. lat. 2548–2554]). The gilt monogram MM and adossée letters CC designate the Massimo and Cesarini families, specifically Domenico’s friends Mario Massimo (1609–1672) and Giuliano V Cesarini (1618–1665). The device of a letter S and arrow (S barré, or fermesse, fermeté), placed in the angles, signifies constancy, particularly in matters of love. In December 1638, Domenico was banished temporarily from Rome, and for more than a year he travelled across Europe in the company of Mario and Giuliano. Mario Massimo became in 1661 the unmarried and childless Domenico’s heir, inheriting all his property, including a library of some 400 volumes: Domenico’s postmortem inventory, 2 August 1661, records “Un credenzone grande d’albuccio con cornice simili, con dentro quattrocento libri stampati con la loro rubricella” (see transcription by Guerrieri Borsoi, Domenico Jacovacci: collezionista e maestro delle strade nella Roma berniniana [Rome, 2017], pp. 120–122 no. [59].
Two similar bindings with Jacovacci’s arms and the MM-CC monograms, and three bindings with Jacovacci’s arms alone, are recorded (see list below). It is possible that they were produced in the shop of one Giovanni Antonio Bordone. A series of payments by Domenico Jacovacci to Bordone for unspecified “legature di libri”, the earliest dated 24 March 1640, the latest 28 July 1660, are recorded in Domenico’s accounts with the Monte di Pietà.
Bindings with Jacovacci Arms
(1) Francesco Berni, Orlando innamorato nuouamente composto da m. Francesco Berni fiorentino (Venice: Heirs of Lucantonio Giunta, October 1541). The volume offered here.
(2) Giovanni Boccaccio Il Decamerone de messer Giouanni Bocaccio nouamente stampato con tre nouelle agiunte (Venice: Agostino Zanni, 12 November 1518). Domenico Jacovacci (armorial supralibros). — George Hibbert (1757-1837); R.H. Evans, A Catalogue of the Library of George Hibbert, Esq. of Portland Place, London, 16 March-6 June 1829, lot 1237 — Thorpe, London - bought in sale (£10 10s) ● George John Warren, 5th Baron Vernon (1803-1866) — Robert Stayner Holford (1808-1892); Lt Col. Sir George Lindsay Holford (1860-1926); Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of extremely choice & valuable books principally from continental presses, and in superb morocco bindings, forming part of the collections removed from Dorchester House, Park Lane, the property of Lt.-Col. Sir George Holford, K.C.V.O. (deceased), London, 5- 9 December 1927, lot 104 — E.P. Goldschmidt & Co., London; their Catalogue 14: Early printed books, medicine, mathematics and early science, XVIth century books and many specimens of early bindings (London 1928), item 288 & Pl. 21 — Rosenbach Company, Philadelphia — Lessing J. Rosenwald (1891-1979) — Washington, Library of Congress, PQ4267.A2 1518 Rosenwald Collection.
(3) Baldassarre Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano del conte Baldessar Castiglione. Nuouamente ristampato (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio, 1545). Domenico Jacovacci (armorial supralibros). Bibliotheca Brookeriana (to be offered 12 October 2023, lot 257).
(4) Virginio Cesarini, "Poesie liriche toscane di D. Virginio Cesarini" [manuscript]. Domenico Jacovacci (armorial supralibros, monograms CC and MM on covers, and device of a letter S and arrow [S barré]). — Martin Breslauer Inc., New York; their Catalogue 102: Books manuscripts fine bindings autograph letters from the ninth to the present century (London 1972), item 71.
(5) Giovanni Battista Guarini, Il Pastor Fido: Tragicommedia Pastorale (Venice: Giovanni Battista Ciotti, 1605). Domenico Jacovacci (armorial supralibros, monograms CC and MM on covers, and device of a letter S and arrow [S barré]). — William E. Moss (1875-1953); Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of the very well-known and valuable library the property of Lt.-Col. W.E. Moss of the Manor House, Sonning-on-Thames, Berks., who is changing his residence, London, 2-9 March 1937, lot 770 — Albi Rosenthal, Oxford - bought in sale (£2 10s).
(6) Francesco Guicciardini, La historia di Italia di m. Francesco Guicciardini gentil’huomo fiorentin (Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino 1561). Domenico Jacovacci (armorial supralibros). — Edward Lee Stone (1864-1938) — Charlottesville, University of Virginia, Typ 1561 G85.
4to (205 x 148 mm). Italic type, 36 lines plus headline (Roman), in 8-line stanzas. collation: π² A-II⁸ KK⁴ LL²: 264 leaves. Title printed in red and black. (Very occasional light marginal foxing, title-page stained.)
binding: Contemporary Roman red goatskin (211 x 154 mm), for Domenico Jacovacci, richly gilt, outer border formed by a roll of cornucopias and leafy branches between single gilt fillets, on its inside a dog’s tooth roll, in the narrow outer panel the adossée letters C and the monogram MM (both repeated), in the corners an S pierced by an arrow, main panel surrounded by the dog’s tooth roll and a fillet, in the corners small pointillé and solid arabesque tools, in center the arms of Jacovacci, on a shield upheld by the paws of a lion standing erect on his hind legs, his head above the shield and his tail protruding below it; flat spine divided into 4 compartments surrounded by the dog’s tooth and cornucopia rolls, in the corners a crescent, in centers the pierced S, the Cs and the MM alternating, the title lettered in top compartment, gilt edges. (Extremities rather rubbed and restored, endpapers renewed.)
provenance: Domenico Jacovacci (supralibros) — André Desvouges & Librairie Giraud-Badin, Paris, 28–29 June 1927, lot 156 (FF 705) — Sotheby's, London, 28 November 1966, lot 103 (£190) — Sotheby’s, London, 2–3 April 1985, lot 14. Purchased by — Martin Breslauer Inc., New York, (£1430; Catalogue 110, 1992, item 85, $6500). acquisition: Purchased from Martin Breslauer, 1993.
references: Edit16 5539; USTC 814138
Berni, Francesco. Orlando innamorato nuovamente composto da M. Francesco Berni fiorentino. Venice: heirs of Lucantonio Giunta, (October) 1541
Original edition of a rewriting of Matteo Maria Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato into the Tuscan dialect, edited by Giovanni Alberto Albicante of Milan. Berni (1497–1535) had completed the work about 1530, and in 1531 was granted a papal privilege and then a privilege from the Venetian Senate; however, for uncertain reasons, he withheld publication. This first edition was published posthumously in two separate issues, one by the Milanese publisher Andrea Calvo (dated 1542), the other in Venice by the Giuntas (dated 1541). Quires B-II are identical in both issues (printed at the Calvo press); the preliminary and final gatherings (KK in the Milan issue; KK, LL in the Venice issue) are different settings, presumably to give the semblance of separate editions (see Weaver, “The Spurious text of Francesco Berni’s ‘Rifacimento’ of Matteo Maria Boiardo’s ‘Orlando Innamorato,’” in Modern Philology 75 [1977], pp. 111–131).
This copy is from the library of the Roman nobleman Domenico Jacovacci (1604–1661) and displays on its covers his family’s heraldic insignia (Sei crescenti d’argento, disposti 2-1-2-1), supported by an erect lion, on the cross of the military order of Calatrava (a title conferred on Domenico in September 1625). Domenico designed this achievement himself, and versions of it illustrate a family memoir he wrote ca. 1635–1638 and a multi-volume genealogical compendium he completed in 1642 (“Historiae familiae suae” [Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, Ms. 1604]; “Repertorii di famiglie” [Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ott. lat. 2548–2554]). The gilt monogram MM and adossée letters CC designate the Massimo and Cesarini families, specifically Domenico’s friends Mario Massimo (1609–1672) and Giuliano V Cesarini (1618–1665). The device of a letter S and arrow (S barré, or fermesse, fermeté), placed in the angles, signifies constancy, particularly in matters of love. In December 1638, Domenico was banished temporarily from Rome, and for more than a year he travelled across Europe in the company of Mario and Giuliano. Mario Massimo became in 1661 the unmarried and childless Domenico’s heir, inheriting all his property, including a library of some 400 volumes: Domenico’s postmortem inventory, 2 August 1661, records “Un credenzone grande d’albuccio con cornice simili, con dentro quattrocento libri stampati con la loro rubricella” (see transcription by Guerrieri Borsoi, Domenico Jacovacci: collezionista e maestro delle strade nella Roma berniniana [Rome, 2017], pp. 120–122 no. [59].
Two similar bindings with Jacovacci’s arms and the MM-CC monograms, and three bindings with Jacovacci’s arms alone, are recorded (see list below). It is possible that they were produced in the shop of one Giovanni Antonio Bordone. A series of payments by Domenico Jacovacci to Bordone for unspecified “legature di libri”, the earliest dated 24 March 1640, the latest 28 July 1660, are recorded in Domenico’s accounts with the Monte di Pietà.
Bindings with Jacovacci Arms
(1) Francesco Berni, Orlando innamorato nuouamente composto da m. Francesco Berni fiorentino (Venice: Heirs of Lucantonio Giunta, October 1541). The volume offered here.
(2) Giovanni Boccaccio Il Decamerone de messer Giouanni Bocaccio nouamente stampato con tre nouelle agiunte (Venice: Agostino Zanni, 12 November 1518). Domenico Jacovacci (armorial supralibros). — George Hibbert (1757-1837); R.H. Evans, A Catalogue of the Library of George Hibbert, Esq. of Portland Place, London, 16 March-6 June 1829, lot 1237 — Thorpe, London - bought in sale (£10 10s) ● George John Warren, 5th Baron Vernon (1803-1866) — Robert Stayner Holford (1808-1892); Lt Col. Sir George Lindsay Holford (1860-1926); Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of extremely choice & valuable books principally from continental presses, and in superb morocco bindings, forming part of the collections removed from Dorchester House, Park Lane, the property of Lt.-Col. Sir George Holford, K.C.V.O. (deceased), London, 5- 9 December 1927, lot 104 — E.P. Goldschmidt & Co., London; their Catalogue 14: Early printed books, medicine, mathematics and early science, XVIth century books and many specimens of early bindings (London 1928), item 288 & Pl. 21 — Rosenbach Company, Philadelphia — Lessing J. Rosenwald (1891-1979) — Washington, Library of Congress, PQ4267.A2 1518 Rosenwald Collection.
(3) Baldassarre Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano del conte Baldessar Castiglione. Nuouamente ristampato (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio, 1545). Domenico Jacovacci (armorial supralibros). Bibliotheca Brookeriana (to be offered 12 October 2023, lot 257).
(4) Virginio Cesarini, "Poesie liriche toscane di D. Virginio Cesarini" [manuscript]. Domenico Jacovacci (armorial supralibros, monograms CC and MM on covers, and device of a letter S and arrow [S barré]). — Martin Breslauer Inc., New York; their Catalogue 102: Books manuscripts fine bindings autograph letters from the ninth to the present century (London 1972), item 71.
(5) Giovanni Battista Guarini, Il Pastor Fido: Tragicommedia Pastorale (Venice: Giovanni Battista Ciotti, 1605). Domenico Jacovacci (armorial supralibros, monograms CC and MM on covers, and device of a letter S and arrow [S barré]). — William E. Moss (1875-1953); Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of the very well-known and valuable library the property of Lt.-Col. W.E. Moss of the Manor House, Sonning-on-Thames, Berks., who is changing his residence, London, 2-9 March 1937, lot 770 — Albi Rosenthal, Oxford - bought in sale (£2 10s).
(6) Francesco Guicciardini, La historia di Italia di m. Francesco Guicciardini gentil’huomo fiorentin (Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino 1561). Domenico Jacovacci (armorial supralibros). — Edward Lee Stone (1864-1938) — Charlottesville, University of Virginia, Typ 1561 G85.
4to (205 x 148 mm). Italic type, 36 lines plus headline (Roman), in 8-line stanzas. collation: π² A-II⁸ KK⁴ LL²: 264 leaves. Title printed in red and black. (Very occasional light marginal foxing, title-page stained.)
binding: Contemporary Roman red goatskin (211 x 154 mm), for Domenico Jacovacci, richly gilt, outer border formed by a roll of cornucopias and leafy branches between single gilt fillets, on its inside a dog’s tooth roll, in the narrow outer panel the adossée letters C and the monogram MM (both repeated), in the corners an S pierced by an arrow, main panel surrounded by the dog’s tooth roll and a fillet, in the corners small pointillé and solid arabesque tools, in center the arms of Jacovacci, on a shield upheld by the paws of a lion standing erect on his hind legs, his head above the shield and his tail protruding below it; flat spine divided into 4 compartments surrounded by the dog’s tooth and cornucopia rolls, in the corners a crescent, in centers the pierced S, the Cs and the MM alternating, the title lettered in top compartment, gilt edges. (Extremities rather rubbed and restored, endpapers renewed.)
provenance: Domenico Jacovacci (supralibros) — André Desvouges & Librairie Giraud-Badin, Paris, 28–29 June 1927, lot 156 (FF 705) — Sotheby's, London, 28 November 1966, lot 103 (£190) — Sotheby’s, London, 2–3 April 1985, lot 14. Purchased by — Martin Breslauer Inc., New York, (£1430; Catalogue 110, 1992, item 85, $6500). acquisition: Purchased from Martin Breslauer, 1993.
references: Edit16 5539; USTC 814138
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