DOLCE (Lodovico) - Lot 63

DOLCE (Lodovico) Le Trasformationi di M. Lodovico Dolce. Venetia, Giolito de Ferrari e Fratelli, 1553. In-4: 1f. (engraved title), 3-309pp., (1). Text in italics on two columns. Missing 5 leaves of the introductory parts, and the first 2 numbered pages of the first canto). Decorated with approx. 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 last blank leaf. Old soft vellum, handwritten title on spine. First edition of one of Italy's finest illustrious books of the 16th century. The volume contains the first edition of Lodovico Dolce's Italian translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses; 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 another six to illustrate an edition of the Bible, all the vignettes were specially designed and engraved for this work. The American continent is depicted 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. This is one of the finest books (unfortunately incomplete with 5 leaves of introductory pieces) to come off the Venice presses (Brunet II, 789).