Canzoniere ; Trionfi : manuscript, 1440. Italy
Petrarca, Francesco, 1304-1374, creator
Giovanni di Piero da Stia, ser, scribe.
186 leaves, bound : vellum ; 25 cm.
Triomphi del Petrarcha ; Canzoni di Dante Allighieri poeta fiorentino : manuscript, 1464. Italy
1 v. (49, 38 leaves) : vellum, paper ; 22 cm.
Deiphira : manuscript, [not after 1472] ; Deifira. Italy
Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472, creator
36 leaves, bound : vellum ; 16 cm.
The Story of the Glittering Plain, William Morris, Kelmscott: 1891.
Reprinted with more illustrations in 1894
His earlier fantasies The House of the Wolfings and The Roots of the Mountains were to some degree historical novels. Like these The Story of the Glittering Plain is set in a world similar to the distant past of northern Europe. Morris would go on to develop the new genre established in this work in such later fantasies as Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair, The Wood Beyond the World, The Well at the World’s End, and The Water of the Wondrous Isles.
The book concerns the quest of Hallblithe of the House of the Raven to rescue his fiancée the Hostage, who has been kidnapped by pirates, which ultimately takes him to the utopian Land of the Glittering Plain, also known as the Acre of the Undying or the Land of the Living Men, whose inhabitants are supposedly immortal.
Title: Historia Naturale (Natural History)
Artist: Pliny the Elder
Pliny?s Natural History was an intellectual marvel in its day, and indispensable to later generations as an encyclopedia of antique knowledge of the natural world. It was also one of the first books to appear in print. The first translation of the Natural History into the vernacular was published by the Strozzi family of Florence in 1476. It was printed by Nicolas Jenson, the great Venetian printer, and this magnificent copy, on vellum, was specially illuminated for the banker Filippo Strozzi, who underwrote the edition. As well as an elaborate opening pages there are exquisite historiated initials and borders at the start of each of the thirty-seven books, many of them incorporating the Strozzi coat of arms, as well as hundreds of decorated initials within the text.
Arch. G b.6, fol. 5v
The Decoration and Illustration of Venetian Incunabula: From Hand Illumination to the Design of Woodcuts
Lilian Armstrong
Printing R-Evolution and Society 1450-1500
Fifty Years that Changed Europe
edited by Cristina Dondi
2020
Woodcuts in Italy took hold in the late 1400s.
With a bibliographical note by Sydney Cockerell, and a note by Emery Walker on flyleaf about Morris’s ownership of the book.
According to Cockerell, in about 1889 Morris began collecting older books “with the definite purpose of studying the type & methods of the early printers. Among the first books so acquired was a copy of Leonard of Arezzo’s History of Florence, printed at Venice by Jacobus Rubeus in 1476, in a Roman type very similar to that of Nicholas Jenson. Parts of this book and of Jenson’s Pliny of 1476 were enlarged by photography in order to bring out more clearly the characteristics of the various letters; and having mastered both their virtues and defects, William Morris proceeded to design the fount of type which, in the list of December, 1892, he named the Golden type . . .” (A Note by William Morris on His Aims in Founding the Kelmscott Press [Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press, 1898], pp. 11–12). The Doves type, later created under the supervision of Walker, was also based on the font used in this book.
Provenance: Christoph Schuerl. — Frederick Perkins. — Bernard Quaritch. — Morris (purchased from Quaritch for £2 10s.). — Richard Bennett. — Sotheby 1898, lot 132 (sold to Leighton for £6). — Emery Walker. — Meisei University Library.
References: Ellis valuation, fol. 32 (£5). — ISTC (ib01247000). — MS catalogue (2), no. 686.
Digital version: BSB.
Facsimile of a page of Herodotus, printed at Venice by Giovanni and Gregorio de’ Gregorii, 1494 Antique wood engraving, 1880 Caption below picture: ‘Facsimile of a page of Herodotus, printed at Venice by Giovanni and Gregorio de’ Gregorii, 1494′ VENICE/TOWNS: Facsimile of a page of Herodotus, printed at Venice by Giovanni and Gregorio de’ Gregorii, 1494; Antique wood engraving, 1880; approximate size 31.0 x 20.5cm, 12.25 x 8.25 inches DATE PRINTED: 1880 IMAGE SIZE: Approx 31.0 x 20.5cm, 12.25 x 8.25 inches (Large) ARTIST/CARTOGRAPHER/ENGRAVER: Unsigned PROVENANCE: “Venice – its history – art – industries and modern life”, by Charles Yriarte, translated from the French by F.J. Sitwell; published by George Bell & Sons, London TYPE: Antique wood engraving VERSO: There are images and/or text printed on the reverse side of the picture. In some cases this may be visible on the picture itself (please check the scan prior to your purchase) or around the margin of the picture CONDITION: Good; suitable for framing. Please check the scan for any blemishes prior to making your purchase. Virtually all antiquarian maps and prints are subject to some normal aging due to use and time which is not obtrusive unless otherwise stated. I offer a no questions asked return policy – see below. Orders normally mailed within 2 business days of
