DOLCE (Lodovico) - Lot 537

Lot 537
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Estimation :
1500 - 2000 EUR
DOLCE (Lodovico) - Lot 537
DOLCE (Lodovico) Le Trasformationi di M. Lodovico Dolce. Venetia, Giolito de Ferrari e Fratelli, 1553. In-4: 1f. (engraved title), 3-309pp. Text in italics on two columns. Missing 5 leaves of the introductory pieces, and the first 2 numbered pages of the first song). Book decorated with about 90 figures (11 of these engravings are used several times and come from another series of engravings, with biblical subjects) at 1/3 page and numerous initials. Large publisher's mark on the last blank page. Old soft vellum, handwritten title on spine. First edition of one of the most beautiful Italian illustrious books of the 16th century. The volume contains the first edition of the Italian translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses by Lodovico Dolce; the division of the songs in the Trasformationi does not follow Ovid's division, although the translations closely follow the Latin text. With the exception of eight blocks used in a Boccaccio printed by Giolito in 1552 and six other blocks intended to illustrate an edition of the Bible, all the vignettes were specially designed and engraved for this work. The American continent is represented on a world map (which is an amalgam of Macrobius and Gastaldi) and bears the name "Nueva Hispania" in a cartographic figure of the winds with the continents. It is one of the most beautiful books (unfortunately incomplete of 5 leaves of introductory pieces) that came out of the presses of Venice (Brunet II, 789).
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