ALBERTI, Leandro
Bologna, Giaccarelli, 1550
In –folio, ll. (32), 469; full vellum with tile on spine. On thetitle page, reprinted at leaf 3, a woodcut printer’s mark showingHercules fighting the Hydra and the motto “Affectusvirtute superantur”. A dedication to Henry II, king of France.
Original edition.
The most important XVI Century work on Italy, due to eruditionof Leandro Alberti (1479-1553), a Dominican friar,author of some lives of Saints and a History of Bologna, thatmerged the classic sources with contemporary ones, establishingthe Italia illustrata by Flavio Biondo, itself a sourcefor Italian history.
It’s a history, geography, tradition work about Italian areas:much information is about the art history and works. Printedslightly before the original edition of Vasari book, theDescrittione includes detailed lists about works of art in citiesand about artists, giving precious information about privatecollections. Of particular interest, also for a briefreference to Vespucci’s travels and to Discovery of the NewWorld. Fossati-Bellani n. 284. STC., 14. Harrisse n. 302:«This work is quoted by the Nova Acta Eruditorum in referenceto the alleged claims of Vespuccius to the discovery ofthe New World».
Steinmann Wittkower p. 48; Schlosser p. 192.
