Florence & the Arts
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F L O R E N C E & THE ARTS From Botticelli ’s Dante to the Uffizi Gallery CALIFORNIA INTERNATIONAL ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR February 10th-12th, 2017 Oakland Marriott City Center - 1001 Broadway Oakland, CA Booth 101 F L O R E N C E & THE ARTS From Botticelli ’s Dante to the Uffizi Gallery cahier n° 9 CALIFORNIA INTERNATIONAL ANTIQUARIAN BOOK FAIR February 10th-12th, 2017 Oakland Marriott City Center 1001 Broadway Oakland, CA Booth 101 21, rue Fresnel. 75116 Paris M. + 33 (0)6 80 15 34 45 - T. +33 (0)1 47 23 41 18 - F. + 33 (0)1 47 23 58 65 [email protected] Conditions de vente conformes aux usages du Syndicat de la Librairie Ancienne et Moderne et aux règlements de la Ligue Internationale de la Librairie Ancienne N° de TVA.: FR21 478 71 326 “I was in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in Florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty... I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations... Everything spoke so vividly to my soul. Ah, if I could only forget. I had palpitations of the heart, what in Berlin they call 'nerves.' Life was drained from me. I walked with the fear of falling.” Stendhal, Rome, Naples et Florence, 1826 4 n° 2 : Sermartelli 5 [1] DANTE ALIGHIERI La Commedia Florence, Nicolaus Laurentii Alamanus, August 30 1481. FINE COPY OF Botticelli ’S DANTE. WITH FOUR ENGRAVINGS (ONE REPEATED) AND SOME PRESTIGIOUS ENGLISH PROVENANCES : MARK MASTERMAN SYKES (1824) AND JOHN THOROLD (1833). NOT WASHED FIRST EDITION OF LANDINO’S massive and so influential commentary. SECOND FLORENTINE ILLUSTRATED BOOK and the first Dante’s edition printed in his native city of Florence Folio (400 x 267mm) COLLATION : π8 2π6 a10 b8 c-e10 f8 g10 h-i8 l10 m-n8 o-r10 s6 2a-g10 2h12 2l-m10 2o6 A8 B-H10 I6 L12 : 369 (of 372) leaves, without 3 blank leaves : π1, 2π8 and L12 CONTENTS : π2r-2π3v Proemio by Landino and Dante’s apologia, 2π3v-7v Ficino’s commendation on Dante and Landino, a1 blank, a2r Inferno, 2a1 blank, 2a2r Landino’s prologue to second section, 2a3r Purgatorio, A1r Landino’s prologue to third section, A2r Paradisio, L10v colophon : Fine del Comento di Christophoro Landino fiorentino sopra la Comedia di Dante poeta excellentissimo et impresso in Firenze per Nicholo di Lorenzo della Magna a Di. XXX. dagosto. M. CCCC.LXXXI., L11 blank 6 7 ILLUSTRATION : 4 etchings (one repeated) by Baccio Baldini after Sandro Botticelli design. The first two ecthings for the first two Cantos being printed in dark impressions at the same time the book was printed (first etching slightly cropped as usual). The two other etchings (Canto III, c2v and Canto XVII on l8r) pasted a few years later and printed in brown ink. The etching of Canto III being a repeat, in a different tone, of the etching for Canto II (Form B, of Hind classification, op. cit., p. 102). The etching of Canto XVII is in the second state with the reversed roman lettering in lower left corner (Hind, (17, II), p. 115). As this copy contains more than 3 plates, it is also part of Form E of the Hind classification EARLY 19th CENTURY BINDING. Green morocco, sides with borders blind-stamped, gilt edges PROVENANCE : contemporary manuscript annotations on e1v and 2a7 -- Sir Mark Masterman Sykes (1771-1823), 3rd Baronet, of Sledmere House, one of the founders of the Roxburgh Club in 1818 and the “Lorenzo” of Dibdin, with his autograph monogram and ink shelfmark on endleaf : “cat. v. 1. 2 195 mms [Mark Masterman Sykes] Sledmer” -- Sir John Hayford Thorold (1773-1831 ; with his bookplates). It was lot 653 of the sale catalogue and mentioned in the Preface : “Dante, with 4 excessively rare Engravings from design by Sandro Botticelli” (Catalogue of an Important Portion of the extensive and valuable Library of the late Sir John Hayford Thorold, Baronet, removed from Syston Park, Lincolnshire, London, Sotheby’s, 1884, p. IV) Paper restoration in the inner margin of 2c10 with some letters supplied in ink ; binding restored Cristoforo Landino (1424-1504) was a Florentine poet, professor and humanist who, along with Marsilio Ficino, oversaw the education of Lorenzo de’ Medici and was inducted as a member of Ficino’s Academy. Ever loyal to the Medicis, in 1458 he was elected professor of Poetry and Rhetoric at the University of Florence at a time when the entire Republic was beginning to learn Greek. He occupied the position of Secretary of the Seigniory until 1492. Landino encouraged the study of the three great Florentine poets: Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio. He also published this famous commentary by Dante, which, in a Neo-Platonist perspective, emphasized the divine inspiration of poetry. He also wrote commentaries of Virgil and Horace. He made public Aristophanes’s speech at the famous Platonist banquet held on November 7th, 1468, which Ficino described in his Commentary on Plato’s Symposium. 8 9 It is now widely recognized, on the basis of Vasari’s account, that the designs of the engravings for the first 19 cantos of Inferno - all that are recorded - derive from Botticelli. His first series of drawings was meant for the grand 1481 edition which was in fact never completed. But the drawing were known and, in turn, they loosely became the basis of the 1487 Bonini Brescia edition, called the first illustrated edition of Dante. The closely related drawings on vellum preserved in the Berlin State Library and in the Vatican are, however, recognized as a second version, made by Botticelli in the mid-1490’s. Botticelli left Florence in the summer of 1481, and the initial project was never completed. However he left Florence with Dante in mind as, according to Hind quoting Vasari, the study of Dante brought “infinite disorder” into his life (p. 100). A magnificent copy with only three etchings was offered to the Signoria at that time and survives today in Florence ; publishing Dante was a conspicuous moment for the Florentine culture. The printing process (merging moveable types and line-engravings) was so difficult that, after canto 3 illustration, the planned production system began to break down. It should be noted that this edition of Dante is only the second illustrated book printed in Florence after the Monte Santo di Dio by Antonio Bettini (Florence, September 10, 1477) also printed by Alamanus and also with pasted-in engravings by the same engraver : Baccio Baldini (ca. 1436-1487). This collapse of the printing process explains why this copy has a repetition of canto 2 illustration for canto 3. A letter from Landino to Bernardino Bembo mentions an edition size of 1200 copies of which less than 130 are known (cf. the census of A. Hind, Early Italian engravings...). Only 20 copies with the 19 plates are known, very few being in private hands - the 19-plate Otto Schäfer copy (OS 103) was recently sold in the trade. This copy is similar to the ten copies recorded in group E of Hind (1938) as it contains “three of more plates (no. 3 being pasted in) but less than nineteenth”. Excluding the Schäfer copy in 1995, no copy with 4 plates (even with one repeated) has been sold on the international or national auction market since 1977. REFERENCES : Goff D-29 -- H 5946* -- GW 7966 -- BMC VI, 628 -- IGI 360 -- Sander 2312 -- Hind, Early Italian Engraving, I, 99-116 -- Des Livres rares, Paris, BnF, 1998, n° 13 135.000 € / 145.000 $ 10 11 [2] SERMARTELLI, Michelangelo Alcune composizioni ... in Lode del ritratto della Sabina Scolpito in Marmo dall’Eccellentissimo M. Giovanni Bologna, posto nella piazza del Serenissimo Grand Duca di Toscana Florence, Nella Stamperia di Bartolomeo Sermartelli, 1583 ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS IN THE HISTORY OF SCULPTURE. IT RECORDS THE IMMEDIATE RECOGNITION OF GIAMBOLOGNA’S MASTERPIECE, “THE RAPE OF A SABINE”. CURIOUSLY, SUCH A FAMOUS SCULPTURE HAD NO NAME BEFORE BEING DESCRIBED BY THE POEMS OF THIS BOOKS WRITTEN BY THE MOST FAMOUS LITERATIS OF FLORENCE AT THE END OF THE 16th CENTURY FIRST EDITION 4to (221 x 159mm) Woodengraved Medici arms printed on title page, numerous woodendgraved initials, woodengraved head-and tailpieces. Dedication al magnifico Sig. bernardo Vecchietti nobil senatore fiorentino dated 18 October 1583 (5 pages) FIRST STATE : first gathering of the dedication in first state with printing mistakes corrected in brown ink by a contemporary hand ; the British Library copy visible on googlebooks having these mistakes corrected in printing, this state variation unknown to current bibliographies COLLATION : *6 A-F4 G2 : 32 leaves, last leaf G2 blank, as usual ILLUSTRATION : 3 full-page woodcuts BINDING : sewn in boards PROVENANCE : Bernard Malle (ink stamp at end of the volume) Giambologna (Douai, 1529 - Florence, 1608) was the greatest Italian mannerist sculptor. The monumental group that he created was considered by Henry Ogden Avery to be the “climax of his career as a sculptor in marble” (Avery Architectural library). It was unveiled on 14 January 1583 to universal acclaim. This colossal statue was soon called the Rape of a Sabine but it had no name when it was created by Giambologna. Raffaello Borghini (1537-1588) presents the circumstances behind this in his 1584 dialogue on the arts, which is a common book in first edition : Il Riposo (Florence, Giorgio Marescotti, 1584) : 12 13 “goaded by the spur of virtue, [Giambologna] set out to show the world that he knew how to make not only ordinary marble statues, but also many together, and the most difficult that could be done, and that he knew where all the art of making nudes lay (showing defeated senescence, robust youth, and feminine refinement).