Italian El Mundo

Selections From the Rare Books Collection

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1482 Euclid. Elementa geometriae. Venice, Erhardt Ratdolt, 1482 xQA31 E86 E5 1482 [This is the editio princeps, or first printed edition, of Euclid’s Elements of Geometry, the oldest mathematical textbook still in common use today. The Greek mathematician Euclid compiled the work around 300 BC. Its success can be attributed to its simple structure where each theorem follows logically from its predecessor. In 1482, Erhardt Ratdolt, famous for his beautifully produced scientific books, printed eight works – Euclid’s Elements among them. German Erhard Ratdolt ran a printshop in Venice from 1476 to 1486. His fame largely rests upon this edition of Elements. It is the first printed book to contain geometrical figures. An elegant three-sided wooden block and a white-vine style woodcut initial, several hundred small ornamental capitals, and over four hundred and twenty carefully designed and perfectly printed marginal diagrams, confirm its standing as a landmark publication. The page layout, particularly the first page, is an outstanding example of Ratdolt’s consideration of the overall look and readability of his work. Note the closeness of the type to the initial and the close set of the text page. For the text, Ratdolt used a type called “rotunda” or “round-text.” The Italian writing-masters called this littera moderna to distinguish it from textura, blackletter, type. Ratdolt’s book was based on the standard Euclid of the later Middle ages: Adelard of Bath’s twelfth-century translation from the Arabic, revised in the following century by Campanus of Novara (d. 1296). In his dedication to this edition, Ratdolt suggested that the scarcity of printed mathematical works was due to the problems involved in printing the geometrical diagrams. He then happily announced that he had discovered a method of printing them as easily as the text. He did not elaborate upon this method, but it most likely involved the use of type-metal rule arrangements that could be printed along with the text.]

1485 Ibn Ezra, Abraham ben Meir (1092-1167). De nativitatibus. Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 1485 xQB26 132 1485 [Editio princeps. Abraham ibn Ezra was born in Toledo, Spain, where he studied astrology, math, grammar, philosophy, theology, medicine and poetry. He was fluent in Hebrew and Arabic. Ibn Ezra lived at a time when Spain, under Muslim rule, had a highly developed culture influenced equally by Christian, Islamic, and Jewish sensitivities. Ibn Ezra, a Jew, left Spain in middle age and spent the last thirty years of his life traveling throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia. His Book of the Nativities was one of eight astrological treatises written by him in 1148. The work describes the planetary influences upon man’s fate at the time of his birth. The University of Padua, near Venice, had a well-established school of astronomy. Peter D’Abano, revered scholar at the school, translated Ibn Ezra’s astrological treatise. D’Abano died in 1316, just before he was to be tried by the Inquisition for heresy. His body was publicly burnt. Also contained in this edition is an essay by Henry Bates written in the thirteenth century about the astrolabe. Bates was a contemporary of D’Abano’s. Erhard Ratdolt is considered one of the best printers of the incunable period. He used high-quality paper, printed clearly and legibly, and contracted with scholars to read and correct texts before he printed them. Ratdolt, an entrepreneur determined to make a quality product, often turned to the University of Padua for scholars cum editors.]

1487 Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. Incipit sermones sancti augustini ad heremitas... Venice, Italy: Impressum Venetiis per Paganinus de Paganinis Brixianum, anno Domini M. CCCC.LXXVII, die. XXVI Maij. (1487) xBR65 A84 1487 [A collection of sixty sermons followed by six brief miscellaneous texts. The first fifty-nine sermons have mostly to do with the proper way of life for monks and priests, with some exegetical sermons interspersed. Sermon sixty is on St. Augustine’s mother, Monica. This is the second book printed by Paganini. Paganini de Paganinis of Brescia set up his presses in Venice, issuing his first book in 1487. He continued printing until 1490. Paganini was one of a family of printers. He began his print shop in 1485 in partnership, but was sole proprietor in 1487 to 1490. He helped two of his brothers set up shop in 1489. They ran their presses until 1499. There is some confusion over books under the imprint Paganinis in Venice after this time. In 1492, Paganini requested permission to print the Bible, suggesting a large undertaking that would cost 4,000 ducats. His Bible was to have a glossary and commentary. This edition was never printed. This same Paganini was the first to print the Qur’an in Arabic characters, in 1517. The edition was ordered to be destroyed by the Pope. Paganini’s son Allesandro had a print shop in Toscolano and later in Venice. It is likely that Allesandro is the Paganini who printed a well-known copy of Euclid’s Geometry in 1509, in Venice, but some scholars attribute this edition to his father. The printer left the initial letters blank for the illuminator. Printed in double columns. Type is Gothic. University of Utah copy is fully rubricated with eight leaves of manuscript at the end in the form of an index produced by Frater Yeremitas. This copy also contains a few marginal notes. From the Kenneth Lawrence Ott Collection donated to the Okanagan County Museum, Washington.]

1516 Strabo. Strabon peri geografias. Strabo de sitv orbis. Venetiis, in aedibvs Aldi, et Andreae soceri, 1516 First printed edition of the original Greek text xG87 S86 1516 [Strabo’s Geographia was the first attempt to collect all the geographical knowledge available and to compose a general treatise on geography. Strabo designed his work for the statesman, rather than for the student, and endeavored to give a general sketch of the character, physical peculiarities and natural productions of each country, thereby giving much valuable information regarding ethnology, trade, and metallurgy. The impact of early printers on their world was extraordinary. The works Aldus Manutius chose to print reflected the great diversity of the interests of his day. He printed Greek and Latin classical texts, grammars, religious writings, secular writings, political and scientific writings, histories, and geographies. But Aldus influenced his world with his craft as well as his scholarly pursuits. His work was recognized for its attractive and readable typography, clean lines and fine design. He designed and cut the first complete font of the Greek alphabet. He helped design a type after Italian cursive script said to be based upon the handwriting of Petrarch. This was the first italic font used in books. Well aware of the power of the press, he was particularly concerned with producing books of small format and low cost for the benefit of students.]

1520 Pittorio, Luigi Bigi, called (ca. 1455 – ca. 1520). Lod. B. Pictorii Hippolyta epigrammaton per… Venetiis: per Georgium de Rusconibus, 1520 xPA8128 P57 1520 [Virtually unknown today, Ludovico Pittorio was a well-respected poet in his time. His works were specifically recommended to be read by lay confraternities, and contemporary poets dedicated their poetry to him. Georgio Rusconi da Milano (Georgius de Rusconibus Mediolanensis) was an exemplary humanist printer. His editions included a dictionary, but were focused primarily on classical authors like Ovid, Livy, Plutarch, Cicero and Quintilian. He also published works by Boccaccio and Erasmus. Rusconi began working with editors for his publications at least as early as 1503. He sometimes reprinted other printer’s works, without modifying the existing editorship. His works show no consistent standards of textual criticism or linguistic revision, and although he did occasionally correct some errors, he also replaced errors with still others. Later editions from Rusconi show that he often worked closely with contemporary authors and editors, to the extent of having one, Nicolo Degli Agostini, insert a plea to his readers stressing his need to recoup his expenses through sales if he were to continue to publish. In one book printed by Rusconi, Agostini advises the reader to “lend this one to nobody, but…make him buy it.” Rusconi began his printing career at least as early as 1500 when he went into partnership with Manfredus de Bonellis de Monteferrat, and continued printing until 1522, after which his heirs continued his press. His printer’s device was most often the common orb and double cross over his initials (G.R.M). This device is found in most of his publications between 1501 and 1521. Occasionally, Rusconi used woodcut representations of St. George the Dragon Slayer, possibly in part as an illusion to his own first name. It is likely that he borrowed the device from a 1493 edition of the story of St. George published by his soon-to-be partner, Bonellis. At any rate, the image was popular at the time, used by such painters and sculptors as Raphael and Tintoretto. Like many printing houses of the time, Rusconi’s business was a family affair. Two of his brothers published at least one book separately, using the orb and double cross device over their own initials. His sons published under his imprint after his death. Rusconi’s widow, Helisabeth de Rusconibus, continued to print in Venice, using her name on imprints as late as 1527. Rusconi’s house closed in the same year, a victim, as were others, of a prolonged period of political turmoil in Venice. Bound with the author’s Gorrica. Venice, 1520. Some contemporary manuscript markings.]

1522 Alcinio, Pietro (1487-1527). Petri Alcyonii medices legatus de exsilio. Venetiis: in aedivus Aldi et Andreae Asulani soceri, mense novembri 1522 xPA8450 A6 M43 1522 [Pietro Alcinio was employed by Aldus Manutius as a corrector for the Aldine press. In 1522 Alcinio was appointed professor of Greek at Florence through the influence of Giulio de’ Medici. When his patron became pope in 1523 under the title of Clement VII, Alcinio followed him to Rome. In 1591, Alcinio published a Latin translation of several of the works of Aristotle, proved by other scholarship to be quite inaccurate. When Medices legatus was published, Alcinio was accused of plagiarism by his enemy Paulus Manutius, son of Aldus Manutius, the founder of the Aldine press. Paulus was particularly enamored of Cicero. The accusation, shown later to be groundless, was that Alcinio had taken passages from Cicero’s lost treatise De Gloria, and then destroyed the only existing copy of the original. Paulus Manutius’ might be forgiven. Alcinio’s contemporaries accused him of haughtiness, uncouth manners, vanity, and licentiousness. Vignette (printer’s device) on title-page and verso of last leaf.]

1534 Tacitus, Cornelius. Cornelius tacitus exacta cura recognitus…Venice: In aedibus haeredum A. Manutii et A. Asulanie soceri, 1534 xPA6705 A2 1534 [Cornelius Tacitus is regarded as one of the greatest historians in Roman history. His surviving works provide a vivid picture of the events of the tyrannical rule of his time. His writing style was succinct and pointed. Title-page contains Aldine press mark.]

1541 Virgil. I sel primi libri dell’eneide di vergilio tradotti a piv illvstre et honorate donne…In Venetia: G. Paduano, 1541-1543 xPA6802 A1 1541 [Many editions of the Aeneid were printed by Venetian presses in the 1540s. Printed in octavo format, it was quite common for miscellanies from two or more editions to be bound together. This composite contains Books I-V from editions printed in Venice by Andrea Arrivabene, 1540-41; Book VI from an edition printed in Venice by Giovannie Padavano, Niccolo Zoppino, and Federico Torresano in 1544. Book IV of this copy has marginalia in a contemporary hand, including rustic drawings of pointing hands, or, manicules. Four wood engravings illustrate Book VI, which also has an index.]

1543 Euclid. Evclide megarense philosopho, solo…Venetia: Venturino Roffinelli, 1543 First printing in Italian xQA31 E836 1543 [Niccolo Fontana Tartaglia (1500 – 1557) was born in Brescia. In 1512 the French army killed 46,000 residents in that city. Tartaglia was severely wounded and, for the rest of his life, spoke with difficulty due to his wounds. The word tartaglia means “stammerer.” Tartaglia was self-taught in mathematics, but by 1516 he was teaching mathematics in Verona. In 1534 he moved to Venice. Tartaglia was a contemporary of Girolamo Cardano. The two had a stormy relationship. Cardano established himself as the world’s leading mathematician after publishing a book in which he revealed Tartaglia’s solution to solving cubes, something he had sworn to Tartaglia he would not do. Tartaglia was also an engineer and surveyor. In these capacities he designed fortifications. Tartaglia was the first to apply mathematics to the investigation of the paths of cannonballs. This work was later validated by Galileo’s studies on falling bodies. Tartaglia made this first translation of Euclid’s Elements of Geometry into Italian, also the first translation of Euclid into a modern European language. Before this translation, Euclid was taught from two Latin translations taken from an Arabic source. These translations contained errors. Tartaglia based his translation on a Latin translation taken from an uncorrupted Greek text and corrected these mistakes. His commentary on the text was also very useful.]

1544 Giambullari, Pierfrancesco (1495-1555). Pierfrancesco Giambullari accademico fior. De’l... Firenze: Per Neri Dortelata, 1544 First edition xPQ4437 G53 1544 [The son of poet Bernardo Giambullari and the product of a thoroughly humanist education, Francesco Giambullari became secretary to Alfonsa Orsina, the widow of Piero de Lorenzo de’ Medici. Her patronage gained him lucrative positions at the parish church in Careggi and as chaplain of Santa Maria Della Compagnia di Libbiano in Volterra. In 1550, he became librarian at the library of Florence, the first to hold this position. Between 1541 and 1548, Giambullari gave a series of public lectures on Dante’s Divina commedia. Giambullari’s work on the Florentine language was part of his effort to validate the writings of Dante. He began his work on Dante in 1538 and his reputation as a Dante scholar quickly grew. Giambullari was a staunch supporter of peculiar and rather obscure movement to support Florentine culture and language. This treatise on Dante’s “Inferno” includes an alphabet he designed to teach Florentine pronunciation. Giambullari claimed that the Florentine language was not derived directly from Latin, but rather had its roots in Aramaic via Etruscan. Printer “Neri Dortelata” was a pseudonym for one of Giambullari’s friends and supporters of his promotion of modern spoken Florentine based on this theory. Dortelata was particularly creative in his printing of Del’sito, forma, & misure dello Inferno di Dante, a lecture on the location and shape of Dante’s Inferno. Dortelata, who used pre-existing type sets, used different typefaces to represent the sound of Giambullari’s proposed pronunciation of Florentine.]

1545 Euclid. I quindici libri de gli elementi de euclide. In Roma: Antonia Blado Asolano, 1545 xQ33 E8 1545 [This edition of one of Euclid’s works on the theory of arithmetic was printed in 1545 by the famous printer and publisher, Antonio Blado. Blado worked in Rome from 1515 to 1567. The basis of italic type was the cursive humanist script and the script of the Papal chancery. Punch-cutter Francesco Griffo worked with printer Aldus Manutius in Venice around 1500, developing an italic font. Blado was one of the first printers to follow the Aldine Press in its use of italic. Around 1520, Blado worked with printer Ludovico Arrighi to develop an italic based on the Papal chancery. Blado’s reputation rests mainly on his use of italic types. He influenced the work of the best Italian printers to come. A few years after the publication of this edition, Blado was appointed Tipografo Camerale, or, printer to the Apostolic Chamber. In this edition, a woodcut portrait of Euclid replaces the Blado device of the eagle.]

1547 rbi‘ ve‘serim...”: b-Humash ‘im targum u ferush Rshi ve-Ibn Ezra ‘u-htper’ot mi-b l-bTartim: veh-Nemim b’dine ‘ishutim uvi ‘irim ke-Kntiv ne-Rshb ve-Ribg ve-Rih Elyshb. v-Nemim b-hromim im ‘etv Rshi ve-Ktivim neb-Ketuvim...veb-mikt’ot metumgim... Venice: Daniel Bomberg, 1547-49 Third edition xBS715 1547 [One of the very few books that Bomberg, the famous Jewish printer, printed more than once. This is a critical edition of the Torah, featuring the works of three 12th-century scholars, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and Rabbi Eliezer of Beaugency. In 1549, the second volume of Bomberg’s first edition was printed in Venice. This edition was reprinted by Plantin in Antwerp in 1571. The Bomberg text became a standard text for the Paris Polyglot of 1628.]

[Daniel Bomberg was one of the first Christian printers of Hebrew books. Bomberg operated a press in Venice, investing four million gold ducats into his printing house. In 1516, Bomberg printed his first edition of the Rabbinic Bible. At that time there was a growing interest in the Hebrew language and the Old Testament among Christian scholars. Bomberg also recognized a market for Hebrew texts among Jews in Italy as the population grew with an influx of Spanish and Portuguese Jewish exiles. Bomberg’s publications provided the basis for the revival of western Semitic scholarship and studies both in Hebrew and Arabic. In all, Bomberg printed more than two hundred books in Hebrew, known for their outstanding scholasticism, beautiful paper, and typographical excellence. Bomberg’s placement of commentary surrounding the text (a popular early printing style based upon manuscript glosses) in his editions of the Bible influenced the appearance of many other types of Jewish literature. The commentary in Bomberg’s Rabbinic Bible appears to swallow the biblical text. Bomberg’s Bible was edited and accompanied by commentaries by some of the best Jewish and Christian scholars of the day, including Rashi, ibn Ezra and ben Asher. Bomberg made use of as many manuscripts of the Old Testament as possible, and influenced many of the Old Testament translations by Reformation-era Biblical scholars. This copy contains several instances of Italian censure, where pens were used to strike out lines of commentary considered blasphemous, and the signatures of those censors. Each censor, in turn, found different passages by the commentators that did not agree with the then-accepted New Testament theology. The University of Utah copy was part of a large private collection owned for centuries by one family. Parts of the collection were scattered across Europe after the family fled from Spain. This Bible, however, remained in the family and was brought to Utah from Latvia when family members migrated in 1935. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David Alder of Salt Lake City, Nov. 1984.]

1548 Bembo, Pietro (1470-1547). Delle lettere di. M. Pietro Bembo primo volume. Roma: Stampate per Valerio Dorico et Luigi fratelli, 1548 First edition xPQ4608 7 1548 [Pietro Bembo was born in Venice to aristocratic parents. He was educated by his father, a man of some influence in the Venetian republic. In 1513, Bembo became secretary to Pope Leo X in Rome. After Leo’s death in 1521, Bembo retired to Padua where he pursued his intense literary interests. Bembo wrote one of the earliest Italian grammars and was influential in establishing the Italian literary language. He wrote Latin lyric poetry and then turned to the vernacular, imitating the poetry of Petrarch. A collection of his poetry was printed in 1530. Other works were printed throughout his lifetime. He is most remembered for the love letters that he exchanged with Lucrezia Borgia, although many scholars insist that the relationship was always platonic. He was a main character in Baldassarre Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier. This first edition of the first volumes of his letters, published one year after his death was printed with the privilege of Paolo III by the Dorico brothers. At the same time they republished the Rime, printing it in a refined rounded italic which distinguished their work from more commercial Venetian editions. The typeface was designed by Lodovico de gh Arrighi. The second volume of Bembo’s letters was printed two years later in Venice, the third and fourth two years after that, also in Venice.]

Giraldi, Giambattista Cinzio (1504-1573). Le Fiamme di M. Geovambattista Giraldi Cinthio... Vinegia: appresso Gabriel de’ Ferrari, 1548 xPQ4624 F5 [Giovanni Battista Giraldi, an Italian novelist and poet, added “Cinthio,” a nickname, to his name. He is usually referred to by that name. In 1525, Giraldi became professor of natural philosophy at the university at Ferrara, where he was born and educated. Twelve years later he became the university’s chair of belles-lettres. In 1560, he had a literary quarrel with his patron Alfonso II d’Este, resulting in loss of favor. He moved to Mondovi and taught literature there until 1568. He was asked to be the chair of rhetoric at Pavia, where he remained until 1573 when poor health forced him to return to Ferrara, where he died. Cinthio wrotethe epic Ercole (1557), and nine tragedies. He also wrote a book of conduct, in the company of Castiglione and others, aimed at educating the courtier, gentleman, or prince in creating an ideal character. He was influenced by the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation in his literary idealogy, but his dramatic works were rather experimental (not to mention gruesome), anticipating modern European theater. His writings were published in many editions and translated into French and Spanish. Some of Giraldi’s published stories were used by Shakespeare as inspiration for the plots of “Measure for Measure” and “Othello.” Speculation is that the latter reached Shakespeare through a French translation. Printer Gabriele Giolito de’Ferrai (c. 1508-1578) was one of the first major publishers of literature in vernacular Italian. In 1523 he and his father established the “Libraria della Fenice” (Bookshop of the Phoenix), a printing press and bookshop in an area of Venice known as one of the major centers of printing. Gabriele added shops in Naples, Bologna and Ferrara. His produced a mix of classical and contemporary literature, supporting the work of new writers. He dedicated himself to publishing works in Italian rather than Latin and Greek, languages unfamiliar to the non-scholastic community. In 1555, he published a celebrated edition of Dante Alighieri’s Commedia, for the first time using the title Divina Commedia. His printer’s device, of which there were several variations, was that of a phoenix emerging from flames atop a globe with his initials, G. G. F. At his death, his sons, Giovanni the Younger and Giovanni Paolo continued this press until 1606.]

Aristotle. Rhetorica, et poetica d’aristotele. Tradotte di... Florence: Apresso Lorenzo Torrentino Impressore Ducale, 1549 first edition of this translation. PN173 A3 544 1549 [This is the first Italian translation of Aristotle’s Poetics and the second of his Rhetoric, following a translation published in 1548 by Giocomo Fabriano. Demand was so high that the second edition was published only two years after the first. Bernardo Segni (1504-1558) studied Greek and Latin at Padua. He served for ten years as a civil servant, working in the service of his maternal uncle, Niccolò Capponi, during which time he had begun working on his best work, the Storie Fiorentine dall’anno 1527 al 1555. A competition for the same scholarship brought him to the attention of Cosimo I de’Medici (1519-1574), the future Duke of Florence and Tuscany. Segni’s diplomatic missions included a meeting with the brother of Charles V, Ferdinand, King of Rome. He had reputation for level-headedness, prudence, and being a shrewd scholar. In the late 1540s and early 1550s, he produced a number of historical and philosophical works, including his translations of Aristotle and of Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics, printed by Lorenzo Torrentino in Florence. Bringing the work of Aristotle into print, in the vernacular, no less, was a mission of Renaissance humanism, glorifying ancient ideas in the Classical world to a new world of rapid and broad dispersal of thought that had long been restricted to the sphere of Roman Catholic church clergy and a small group of academics. In his work, Aristotle stated that there are two truths: poetic and historical. Based on an analysis of Homer’s The Iliad, Aristotle determined that poetry sought universal truths while history strove to the unique particular. Aristotle concluded that poetry was superior to history. Dedication to Cosimo I de’Medici. Woodcut historiated initials.]

1551 Giambullari, Pierfrancesco (1495-1555). De la lingua che si parla & scriue in Firenza…Firenze: Torrentino, 1551 xPC1073 G53 1551 [Printer Lorenzo Torrentino (1499-1563) was a Dutch-Italian humanist and printer for Cosimo, Duke of Florence. He was born in the Netherlands into a wealthy family. After his studies, he began working for printers and booksellers in Antwerp, Basel, Lyon, Venice and Bologna. There, he worked as a bookseller with Arnoldus Arlenius, a well-known and well-respected Greek scholar. They imported books in Greek and Latin from France and Germany, selling them throughout Italy. They also acted as liaisons between authors and printers. After the death of Filippo Giunta, the great Florentian pressman, printing in Florence deteriorated from an art to a trade. Duke Cosimo I brought Torrentino to Florence to improve the quality of printing in his city. In 1577 Torrentino opened his own press in Florence. He produced nearly two hundred and seventy-five editions. His work was of high quality and his reputation and business flourished. In 1562 he became director of a type foundry. His press was managed by his sons. His careful and artful typographic skills enabled him to contribute to the development of Italian languages. Like the best printers of the era, Torrentino carried equally the roles of editor, translator and commentator. University of Utah copy gift of Ivie J. and Jeanne M. Nielson.]

1552 Bembo, Pietro (1470-1547). Della historia vinitiana. Venice: Gualtero Scotto, 1552 First edition in Italian translation xDG677 2 B43 [Venice’s Council of Ten commissioned Pietro Bembo to write a history of the city. Covering the period 1487-1513, it first appeared in Latin in 1551 as a folio production of the Aldines, with part of the edition having been printed for Gualatero Scotto and bearing his Hermes and Athena device. This first edition of the history in Italian translation does not seem to have had Aldine Press involvement, all known copies bearing only the Scotto device on the title-page and on the verso of the final leaf. Two interesting aspects of the text are the life of Bembo that occupies leaves five to fourteen of the first section of unnumbered leaves and chapter VI, which is dedicated to America and the Spanish discovery and exploration of it. Bembo postulated that this pivotal event in world history ws the proximate cause for the decline of Venice as a major center of commerce.]

1554 Rhetorticorum ad c herennim libri iii...Venetiis: Apud Paulum Manutium, Aldi filium, 1554 xP 6304 R7 1554 [The “Ad Herennium” is a treatise on oratory written around 86-82 BC, usually attributed to Cornificius, and sometimes, erroneously, to Cicero. Certainly, Cicero made use of it in his “De Inventione,” but he never made reference to it as one of his own writings. The work ws modeled on Hellenistic rhetorical writing and is an interesting early extant example of Latin prose, the oldest known piece of Latin writing to exist in its entirety. It was first printed in Venice in 1470 by Nicolaus Jensen. At least twenty-eight other editions appeared in the fifteenth century, several with commentary. This is the third Aldus edition of the complete rhetorical works of Cicero, including the anonymous “Ad Herennim,” edited and corrected by Cicero scholar Paulus Manutius. The first Aldus edition appeared in 1546 and was reprinted in 1550. Bound with Ciceronis De officiis libri tres; Cato maior,uel, De senectute: Laelius, uel, De amicitia: Paradox Stoicorum sex;…Printers device on title-page. From the Kenneth Lawrence Ott Collection donated to the Okanagan County Museum, Washington.]

Cicero, Marcus Tullius (106-43 BCE). M. tullii ciceronis orationum pars I. [-III] cum… Venetiis : Apud Paulum Manutium, Aldi filium, MDLIII…etc. (1554-1559) xP6279 2 1554 [Paoli Manutii moved his father’s famous Aldine Press from a concentration on ancient Greek texts, his father’s love, to a concentration on classical Latin texts, his own love. In particular, Paoli maintained a life-long passion for Cicero. He restored the reputation of the Aldine Press by publishing scholarly editions of Cicero’s letters and orations. Much of the correcting and editing was his own. He continued with his work on Cicero by adding commentary. He published his first edition of Cicero’s work in 1540, adding another edition in 1547. This is the first complete edition of Cicero’s orations, published in three volumes. From the Kenneth Lawrence Ott Collection donated to the Okanangan County Museum, Washington.]

1556 Fausto da Longiano, Sebastiano (1502-1565). Dialogo…del modo de lo tradurre d’una in altra…Venice: [Gio. Griffo, ad Instanza di Lodovico delle Avanzil], 1556 First edition xPN241 F38 1556 [Sebastiano Fausto was a translator and author. In 1532 he produced a well-received edition of Petrarch with commentaries and, later, a vernacular edition of Erasmus’ Apothegms. Dialogo is his treatise on rules for rhetorical translation, based on Cicero’s writings on the subject. Fausto composed the treatise in the form of a conversation between Inquieto, who poses questions, and Fausto himself, Occulto, who provides the answers. Fausto built on Cicero’s theories with commentary. He divided the process of translation into two distinct, tiered elements. First, “Argument, Arrangement and Elocution”: The translator as reader. Second, “Composition, Dignity and Number”: the Reader becomes Writer. Fausto recognized that comprehension and understanding of language is always relative. In the end a structured analysis of any work for translation gives way to a sense of the work as much as the reproduction of words and word order. In other words, a purely scientific translation based solely upon formal characteristics will not fill the bill: Translation also calls for a humanistic approach. Woodcut device on title-page. Bound in contemporary limp vellum with a small, circular coat-of-arms stamped on the front cover. Title in manuscript on spine.]

1557 Massolo, Pietro (1520-1590). Sonetti morali di m. Pietro Massolo. Bologna: per Antonio Manutio, 1557 xPQ4630 M23 6 1557 [Pietro Massolo, born in Venice, was a monk at Monte Cassino. This volume of poetry is dedicated to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, an influential friend of the Manutius family and the Aldine Press. Antonio Manutio (d. 1559) sometimes combined his own imprint with that of the Sons of Aldus. In this book, the title-page has a small variant of the Sons of Aldus device with different details in the elaborate surround. The figure of the dolphin is reversed. Antonio published only a few works, all of which appear to have been strictly of personal interest to him. When Antonio started his press, he required the help of his older brother Paulus (Aldus’s third son). Paulus was unhappy about the imposition, writing that he was “on the verge of madness and bankruptcy.” The last years of Antonio’s life were years of contention between the two.]

1558 Mattioli, Pietro Andrea (1501-1577). Commentarii secundo aucti in libros sex Pedacii Dioscoridis anazarbei de medica materia; apologia adversus amantum lusitanum. Venetiis: in officina Erasmiana, Vincentij Valgrisij, 1558 xQK41 M3 1558 [Italian-born Mattioli, the son of a physician, became a physician himself after studying in Padua. He served in the court of Ferdinand I and then Maximilian II in Prague. He published an examination of the origins and treatment of syphilis in which he was one of the first to recommend mercury as a cure. This is the first edition of the Apologia and the second printing of Mattioli’s herbal, which became the standard book on medical botany for European physicians during the second half of the sixteenth century. The second printing was substantially revised and enlarged and includes the woodcuts used in the first printing as well as over one hundred new cuts based on the drawings of Giorgio Liberale. New observations, descriptions of new plants, and its conception and execution as a practical scientific treatise, quickly set this work aside from others in botanical literature. Printed in Italic, Roman, and Greek type, with historiated woodcut initials, and a woodcut printer’s device. Brown morocco backed paste paper covers heavy, original boards. A contemporary reader glossed the text with citations to classical and contemporary sources like Hippocrates. A later owner scattered a few German notes throughout and filled the final two leaves with pharmaceutical recipes in German. Past owners included Gottfried Helius and Caspar Suevus who bought the book from Helius’ library.]

1569 Danti, Ignazio (1537-1586). Trattoto dell’vso et della fabbrica…Firenze: Appresso I Giunti, 1569 First edition xQB41 S3 [Ignazio Danti was born into a family of artists and scholars. His father and grandfather were architects. His father constructed astronomical and surveying instruments. His aunt, Teodora, published a work on Euclid’s Elements and books on art. His brother was a sculptor. As a young man, Danti entered the Dominican order, studying philosophy, theology, mathematics, astronomy, and cartography. When Cosimo Medici I became the second Duke of Tuscany he appointed Danti to teach science at Pisa and directed him to teach his sons mathematics. Cosimo’s eldest son, then thirty, resented the lessons and, after the death of his father, gave Danti twenty-four hours to leave Tuscany. Danti provided maps for Cosimo de’ Medici. He designed and number of astronomical instruments, brought about the reformation of the Gregorian calendar after having detected an eleven-day error, and was appointed Papal Cosmographer and Mathematician by Gregory XIII in 1580. This book was the first to be published in Italy on the astrolabe and contains the earliest known depiction of a woman using a scientific instrument. Woodcut vignette of Medici coat of arms on title-page. Printer’s mark on recto of last leaf.]

1572 Porcacchi, Thomaso (ca. 1530-1585?). L’isole piv famose del mondo. Venetia: Appresso S. Galignani & Girolamo Porro, 1572 First edition xG500 P67 1572 [By the middle of the sixteenth century the art of map printing, as distinct from the printing of charts, had reached a high state of development in Italy, particularly in Venice. Tomaso Porcacchi’s popular geography was reprinted in Italy several times until the late seventeenth century. One of the most influential geographical works of the sixteenth century, it describes the islands of Europe, the Pacific, southern Asia, and America, including Hispaniola, Cuba, and Mexico City. The work also includes Zaltieri’s famous delineation of North America (the first to divide Asia from Alaska), a navigator’s chart of the world, and a world map on oval projection after Ortelius, based on the projection used in the 1528 printed edition of Benedetto Bordone's Isolario. The copper engravings made for Porcacchi by Girolamo Porro are considered much superior to the woodcuts in the Bordone edition.]

1575 Maurolico, Francesco (1494-1575). D. Francisci Mavrolyci…opuscula mathematica…Venetijs: apud F. Franciscium Senensem, 1575 First edition xQA33 M46 [Francisco Maurolico learned Greek and mathematics from his father, who had fled to Sicily during the Turkish sack of Constantinople. He was ordained as a priest in 1521 and later joined the Benedictines. He lived his life in Sicily with short visits to Rome and Naples. He was in charge of the fortifications of Messina, and was appointed to write a history of Sicily. Maurolico took upon himself the recovery of classical mathematics, restoring several ancient works from incomplete manuscripts and translating texts by Theodosius, Euclid, Apollonius, Archimedes, and others. He gave methods for measuring the Earth in one of his books. These methods were used nearly one hundred years later by Jean Picard in measuring the meridian of the earth. He made astronomical observation, in particular a supernova appearing in Cassiopeia in 1572. At the end of his life he published several works, including Opuscula, in which he refined the proof-methods of classical mathematics.]

1592 Alpini, Prosper (1553-1617). De plantis aegypti liber. Venice: apud Franciscum de Franciscis Senensem, 1592 First edition xQK403 A4 [Prosper Alpini, physician and botanist, was educated in Padua. For three years, beginning in 1580, he traveled through the Greek islands and Egypt. In 1593, he was appointed Chair of Botany at Padua. Alpini’s works were extremely popular during his lifetime. One of his best known is De plantis Aegypti liber, a description of fifty-seven plants found in Egypt and largely unknown in Europe, written in dialogue form. Alpini was the second European writer to mention the coffee plant in a printed book and the first to illustrate and describe it. The many woodcuts in this printing are more decorative than realistic.]

1620 Biancani, Guiseppe (1566 - 1624). Sphaera mundi. Bononiae: Typis S. Bonomij, sumptibus Hieronymis Tamburini, 1620 First edition xGA7 B57 [One of the most immediate consequences of the telescopic observations of Galileo in 1609-10 was the discussion it generated among the mathematicians and astronomers of the Society of Jesus. They reproduced Galileo’s observations and debated the cosmological order of the universe considering the new data. The debate culminated in the adoption of Tycho Brahe’s system and was made official with the publication of Giuseppe Biancani’s Sphaera Mundi. The Jesuit Biancani fully accepted Brahe’s amendation of the Copernican cosmography which acknowledged the heliocentricity of the planetary system, while preserving the geocentricity of the universe. Biancani wrote his treatise in 1615, but it was not published until 1620, after the Decree of the Congregation of the Index in 1616. Written at the request of his students, Biancani respectfully cited Brahe, Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler repeatedly. He discussed the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, sunspots, and the new stars of 1572, 1600, and 1604, astronomical phenomena not observed before the development of the telescope. Biancani also presented his own theory of the earth’s tendency toward roundness, wherein natural forces operate to flatten mountains and fill valleys so that the surface would be completely covered by the ocean, as it was in the early formation of the earth. Biancani wrote that God created the earth on the third day as a smooth sphere. God then created the depths of the sea and formed the mountains. One of the many woodcuts in the text is an illustration of the moon, with very inaccurately drawn craters. Another is the first illustration of a thermometer.]

1632 Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). Dialogo di galilei linceo matematico soprindario dello studio de Pisa. Fiorenza: Per Gio Batista Landini, 1632 First edition xQB41 G14 [Born in Pisa in 1564, Galileo studied medicine, mathematics, and philosophy. In 1592 he was appointed to the Chair of Mathematics in Padua. His early researches were mainly on motion, particularly of falling bodies, but he became interested in astronomy. He developed a new type of telescope. Much of Galileo’s early work proved the theories of Copernicus, of which the Roman Catholic Church disapproved, placing an injunction not to hold or defend Copernican doctrine. Galileo ignored the injunction with the publication of Dialogo. Galileo’s Dialogo is a brilliant scientific and philosophical affirmation of the Copernican heliocentric theory over the earth-centered Ptolemaic theory of the solar system. Galileo deliberately chose to write this work in vernacular Italian rather than scholarly Latin in order to reach a larger audience. That, along with his attractive literary style, and, of course, the topic, made the work a great success, and a threat to the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Publication took place between June 1631 and February 1632. The first printing numbered 1000 copies of 500 pages. This printing sold out before the end of September when it was banned by the Pope. It was this book that brought Galileo before the Inquisition in 1633, where he was forced to recant his views. He was put under permanent house arrest. Dialogo was placed on the Index of prohibited book where it remained until 1835.]

1637 Osio, Teodato (d. 1699). L’armonia del mondo parlante con ragione di... Milan: C. Ferrandi, 1637 First and only edition xML3849 O8 1637 [A treatise on the relationship between music and other arts, particularly poetry. The first part explores vocal and instrumental music, harmony, interval, tempo, the science of proportion and poetic meter. The second part examines music and Latin verse, particularly the epic. The third addresses classical melodic modes and Italian verse (Bembo, Petrarch, Chiabrera, Cavalcanti, Stigliani and others). Milanese poet Teodato Osio examined the emotional effects of music, continuing a philosophy that began at least as early as Plato. Osio was interested in astrology, mathematics, numerology, magic and divination. He valued the effect of music over that of visual arts such as painting and acting. Published one year before John Milton’s visit to Italy, L’armonia is Osio’s only published work. Decorated and illustrated with typographic diagrams in text, nine folding and two small engraved plates printed on stiff paper, engraved architectural and allegorical title-page with Time, Fame, the Muses with instruments and the arms of the dedicatee, Francesco Braganza di Melo. Bound in contemporary vellum over flexible paper boards.]

1669 Malpighi, Marcello (1628-1694). Dissertatio epistolica de bombyce. Londini: apud Joannem Martyn & Jacobum Allestry, regi societatis typographos, 1669 First edition xQL561 B6 M3 1669 [This is the first detailed monograph on the anatomy of an invertebrate. Marcello Malpighi was the founder of histology and a renowned microscopist. He dissected and observed silkworms, publishing his findings in this short treatise. Until this publication, it was believed that silkworms had no blood. organs. A short time after receiving Malphighi’s solicited manuscript, the Royal Society elected him an honorary member, and paid for the publication of the treatise.]

1680 Borelli, Giovanni Alfonso (1608-1679). De motu animalium in. Alphonsi Borelli... Romae: ex typographia Angeli Bernabo, M.DC.LXXX-MDCLXXXI [1680] First edition xQP301 B65 1680 [Giovanni Borelli was trained in mathematics, but he also studied medicine, astronomy and geology. Among other things he investigated blood, Jupiter’s moons, and the movement of food through plants. At a time when Galileo was under attack, Borelli was sheltered from the Inquisition by Queen Christina of Sweden. Borelli corresponded with Galileo beginning in the 1640s, after Galileo’s house arrest. Borelli taught Marcello Malpighi, who became a well-known anatomist. The two remained friends for life. In 1657, they founded a short-lived Italian scientific academy. Malpighi’s work inspired Borelli to study animal movement, a pursuit that would continue through the rest of his life. Though he would become known as the Father of Biomechanics, Borelli died in poverty. His masterwork, De Motu animalium (On the Movement of Animals), was published posthumously, one year after his death. In this work, Borelli relates animals to machines and uses mathematics to prove his theories. Borelli thus followed Galileo’s model of geometrical analysis in mechanics as a way to explain biological phenomenon. Borelli was the first to suggest that muscles contract with movement and that that contraction is enabled by chemical reaction in the muscle. He the first to recognize that forward motion entails movement of a body’s center of gravity and is then completed by the swinging of limbs to maintain balance. He compared the working of the heart to a piston.]

1718 Amenta, Niccolo (1659-1719). Le gemelle commedia. Venice: M. L. Muzii, 1718 First edition xPQ4526 A68 G45 1718 [Niccolo Amenta was an attorney, poet, philosopher and playwright. He was known for championing the Tuscan language and was an influential member of the Accademia degli Investiganti. He wrote a biography of Leonard Di Capa, the founder of that organization. His plays were highly regarded in his time. Le Gemelle Commedia was printed three times in the eighteenth century. Contemporary binding of full brown calf. Covers elaborately gilt-tooled in compartments, with central design of flowers and arabesques. Spine gilt-tooled in compartments with brown leather, label, all edges gilt.]

1721 Magalotti, Lorenzo (1637-1712). Lettere scientifiche, ed erudite. Firenze: Per I Tartini e Franchi, 1721 First edition xQ113 M35 1721 [Lorenzo Magalotti was born into an old and distinguished Florentine family during a period of political upheavals and religious wars. He studied with Viviani, one of the last pupils of Galileo. Magalotti was one of the first members of the Accademia del Cimento, founded in Florence in 1657 by Ferdinando II de’ Medici and his brother Prince Leopold. During the ten years of the Accademia’s existence he acted as secretary. In 1667, Magalotti abandoned his scientific studies and embarked on a series of travels as a diplomat in the service of the Medicis. This work, published posthumously, contains essays on the physical sciences, and covers subjects as diverse as light, Galileo, the comet of 1664, odor, languages, the properties of snow and the properties of viper venom. Folding engraved portrait of the author, engraved vignette on title, initials. Original boards. Uncut.]

1724 Sacchetti, Franco (ca. 1330-ca. 1400). Delle novelle di Franco Sacchetti Cittadino... In Firenze: n.p., 1724 First edition xPQ4555 A5 1724 v. 1 & 2 ARC [Sacchetti’s humorous anecdotes, masterpieces of post-Boccaccian fiction, provide a vivid portrait of life in fourteenth century Florence. Born to a noble Florentine merchant family, Sacchetti had a thorough and intimate familiarity with the lives and manners of his bourgeois peers and was deeply influenced by the writings of Boccaccio, whose death in 1375 roughly coincided with the beginnings of Sacchetti’s career as a writer. He was one of the earliest and most influential of the writers to follow in Boccaccio’s wake. This collection gathers two hundred and twenty-three (a few of which are fragments) of what Sacchetti originally planned as three hundred short tales, based on manuscripts that were part of the collections of the library of San Lorenzo and of Lorenzo Gherardini (according to a printed note following the final tale). Two pirated editions appeared with the same imprint and date. A number of typographical differences distinguish the first edition from its counterfeits. The unsigned preface has been attributed to librarian, philologist, and professor of theological history Giovanni Gaetano Bottari. Among the preliminaries is a section entitled “Autori che hanno parlato di Franco Sacchetti e delle sue opere,” a bibliography of early writings related to Sacchetti, and at the end of the second volume is printed a letter from Sacchetti to Giacomo, count of Perugia, on paintings of the saints. The dedication is addressed to Bartolommeo Corsini and is signed by Filippo Umberto. Woodcut architectural device to both title pages, historiated tailpieces, historiated and vignette initials.]

1729 Kingdom of Sardinia (1720-1730), Victor Amadeus I (1666-1732). Costituzioni di sua maestà per l’università di... Torino, nell’ Accademia Reale: appresso Gio. Battista Chais, 1729 First edition xK3164 [Universita di Torino was founded in 1404 in the midst of turmoil at the universities of Piacenza and Pavia from the Lombardy wars, attracting professors of theology, the arts, and medicine. By the sixteenth-century, students from more than thirteen nations attended Università di Torino. Erasmus took a degree in theology here in 1506. The university was plagued by internal and external political pressures, particularly under the dukes Amadeo VIII, Emanuele Filiberto, and Charles Emmanuel I, who either meddled in the university policies or suspended important financial support. Emmanuel I (1580-1630) channeled most university funding into his wars. Duke Victor Amadeus II, who was so instrumental in restoring Italian autonomy by forging a French-free Piedmont, is credited with reforming the university and with restoring its prestige through this constitution and series of regulations. The university came under state jurisdiction, with an official appointed by the court to direct the administration and censor school texts. This document provides a snapshot of university life and activities in Turin in the late eighteenth-century, covering everything from the administration of the university to the administration of the library and school festivals, holy days, and processions. A letter by Amadeus is reproduced at the end, followed by short statements summarizing the pedagogical focus of the schools of grammar, rhetoric, and humanities. For seventy years, these momentous documents retained their force, and it was only until Napoleon that the university was overhauled along French lines.]

1741 Virgil. Codex antiquissimus a ruffo tirio emporium n. c... Florentiae: typis Mannianis, 1741 First edition xPA6801 A1 1741 [This book represents the first attempt ever to produce a manuscript facsimile by using type specially cut to mimic the manuscript. The manuscript dates from about 494 CE. It is one of the earliest extant of Roman classics and one of three primary sources of the Virgilian oeuvre. It is believed that this manuscript is older than the “Vatican Virgil.” Published under the direction of the Vatican librarian Pier Francesco Foggini (1713-1783), the edition was printed in red and black ink to simulate the original script. Printed by Domenico Maria Manni (1690-1788), it is an ambitious work of literary and typographic love. Manni appreciated in his father’s print shop. He became the director of the Biblioteca Strozzi in Florence. He was particularly interested in the Tuscan language of the fourteenth century and wrote several scholarly works on the subject. Renowned twentieth-century typographer Daniel Updike wrote of this book, “A curious piece of Italian typography, very characteristic of the eighteenth century…set entirely in old style capitals…imitating those of an ancient and famous manuscript Virgil in rustic characters, in the Laurentian Library, Florence. The preface exhibits a fairly accurate engraved reproduction of a few lines of the model on which the book was based, and in the text the… letters gives the general effect of a font of “rustic” type. Thus the work displays that amazing audacity in arriving at a striking effect, notwithstanding inaccurate details and economy of method, which was typical of Italian printing at that time. Issued at a place and period which appears unfavourable to such a venture, and dedicated to Lovers of the Fine Arts, it also indicates there has always been a public sufficiently sympathetic to encourage such publications. The volume is enlivened by occasional rubrication, which gives it a distinguished air.” (Printing Types I. p. 171.) Approximately twelve copies of this edition were printed on vellum, the rest on paper. Engraved dedication leaf, engraved allegorical frontispiece.]

1803 Murari dalla Corte, Girolamo Murari (1747-1832). Pietro il grande, imperadore I., ed autocrata di tutte le russie. Verona: nella Stamperia Giuliani, 1803 First edition xDK131 M87 [Biography of Peter the Great written in ottava rima comprising twelve cant by the Venetian nobleman Murari dalla Corte. Printed by the Giuliani of Verona, printers noted by contemporaries for their superior work. The house was founded by the educated Veronese Bartolomeo Giuliani, owner of a fine library, and flourished between 1795 and 1827. Count Murari dedicated his work to Czar Alexander I, in recognition of his humanitarian attitude toward Europe in the aftermath of the Napoleonic conquests. Alexander's full page portrait was engraved after a drawing by Saverio Dalla Rosa (1745-1821) who received orders for portraits from all over the world and lived in Russia for years.]

1809 Bodoni, Giambattista (1740-1813). Le più insigni pitture parmensi: indicate agli...Parma: Dalla Tipografia Bodoniana, 1809 xND621 P3 B63 1809 [Giambattista Bodoni is one of the great typographers and printers of all time. Bodoni was raised in a family of printers. He worked as an apprentice for the Vatican’s printing house in Rome, where he printed a Coptic missal and a Tibetan alphabet. His skill was so respected that he was allowed to place his name on the imprint for these publications. In 1766, the Duke of Parma hired Bodoni to organize a print shop there. Bodoni began by publishing type specimen books, harbingers of great things to come from the shop. European nobility recognized the quality of the printing and soon commissioned Bodoni to print editions of classical works. In 1770, Bodoni started his own type foundry. He became successful enough to open his own print shop, Officina Bodoni, in 1790. His editions were sought for the beauty of their production as much as for their content. He designed more than two hundred typefaces and produced approximately twelve hundred editions. So famous was Bodoni that the cathedral bells of Parma were rung at his death. Le più insigni pitture Parmensi, or, “Famous Paintings of Parma,” was printed in 1809, but not published until 1816, three years after Bodoni’s death, by his widow, the Duchess Maria Luigia. Engravings by Francesco Rosaspina after Francisco Vieira. Printed in Italian and French. University of Utah copy in original binding with gold crest stamp on front and back. From the Kenneth Lawrence Ott Collection donated to the Okanagan County Museum, Washington.]

1820 Blasis, Carlo (1803-1878). Traite elementaire theorique et pratique de...Milan: Chez Beati et A. Tenenti, 1820 First edition xGV1787 B56 1820 [Carlo Blasis, dancer, choreographer and dance theoretician, was born in Naples. When he was young, his family moved to Marseilles. His father, who came from a long line of naval officers, was a well-established musician and composer. He gave all of his children musical training. Blasis also studied architecture, drawing, geometry, anatomy, and dancing. He made his first public appearance at in Marseilles, followed by a successful tour of provincial towns. While dancing at the Paris Opera he was sent away because the French dancers resented his great popularity. From there he went to Milan where he established his career at La Scala. He danced all over Italy and in London. He married Annunziata Ramaccine and danced with her until a leg injury forced him to abandon his career as a performer. In 1837, he was made Director of the Imperial Academy at Milan, where he taught Carlotta Grisi and Fanny Cerrito, both already established stars of the dance. He was well-known for his very rigorous dance classes which sometimes lasted as long as four hours. He published his first work, and the first codified analysis on ballet technique, Traite, and continued to write on the technique, theory and history of dance for the rest of his life. He is best known for developing the attitude position, based on the statue of Mercury by Geovanni da Bologna. He discovered the technique called “spotting,” which prevented dizziness while performing turns. He taught Enrico Cecchetti, who would later expand Blasis’s technique and would become famous in his own right for ballet instruction that is still used.]

1844 Mazzuchelli, Samuele (1806-1864). Memorie istoriche ed edificanti un missionario apostolico dell’ordine dei predicatori fra varie tribu de selvaggi e fra i cattolici e protestanti negli Stati-Uniti d’America. Milano: Coi tipi della ditta Boniardi-Pogliani..., 1844 First edition xBX1406 M34 1844 [Father Samuele Mazzuchelli, a Dominican priest from Milano, traveled to the United States in 1828, staying for the next thirty-six years. Arriving only a few weeks after being ordained, he was the only Roman Catholic priest whose mission covered the territory of northern Michigan and all of present-day Wisconsin. He was remarkably productive. He claimed to have baptized fifteen hundred American Indians as well as ministering to Anglo pioneers. He founded thirty parishes and built twenty churches. In 1843, Mazzuchelli returned to Italy to recruit missionaries and secure funds to found a seminary. While there he published an anonymous book recounting his experiences, describing church missions in Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, and Illinois and including a visit to Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo, Illinois. Mazzuchelli wrote that he “desired to see and speak with the heresiarch known for several years in every part of the Republic and even in England.” He visited Joseph Smith in an attempt to convert him. Smith told Mazzuchelli that “he had many times seen God face-to-face and had had more revelations than the Apostle St. Paul.” Claims such as this re-enforced Mazzuchelli’s view of Smith as a “false prophet” and heretic. Mazzuchelli determined that Solomon Spaulding wrote the Book of Mormon and that “the theology of the Mormons is chiefly the work of a certain P. Pratt.” Mazzuchelli cited J.B. Turner’s Mormonism in All Ages, or the Rise, Progress and Cause of Mormonism as a source, a book which also criticized the Roman Catholic Church. University of Utah copy missing map 3.]

1852 Il libro di Mormon; ragguaglio scritto per mano di Mormon, sopra tavolette prese fra le tavole di Nefi. Tradotto in lingua inglese da Giuseppe Smith il giovane; tradotto e pubblicato dall’Inglese in lingua italiana d’ordine e&c; di Lorenzo Snow. Londra: G. Bowden, 1852 First edition in Italian xBX8625 I8 1852 [Lorenzo Snow, T. B. H. Stenhouse, Jabex Woodard, and Joseph Toronto (a native Sicilian) began missionary work for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Italy in 1850. The missionaries spent their time in the Kingdom of Sardinia among the Waldensians, French-speaking inhabitants of Piedmont. In 1851 Snow went to London, where he supervised the translation of the Book of Mormon into Italian. Approximately one thousand copies were published in 1852. Twenty-five copies were bound in morocco for church authorities, one hundred and sixty-seven were bound in sheepskin. The remaining copies were bound in blue cloth in 1927. University of Utah copy bound in sheepskin with blind-embossed boards, title on spine in gilt, from the library of John A. Widtsoe.]

1934 Cipriani, Leonetto (1812-1888). Avventure della mia vita…Bologna: N. Zanichelli editore, 1934 First edition xDG552.8 C56 M67 1934 [In 1852, Leonetto Cipriani was appointed by the King of Sardinia as that country’s first consul in San Francisco. Cipriani, born into a Florentine family living in Corsica, fought against Austria in 1848 and was imprisoned and then exiled. After resigning as consul, he purchased cattle in the American mid-west with the intention of selling them in California. During his cattle drive, in 1852, he passed through Salt Lake City. There, a converted Sicilian, Domenico Ballo, introduced Cipriani to John Taylor. Taylor introduced Cipriani to Brigham Young. In this book, Cipriani reminisces about the Salt Lake Theatre, where Ballo conducted the orchestra, and conversations with Taylor regarding polygamy and politics. In the 1859 War of Independence he was a member of Napoleon III’s headquarters and served briefly as governor of Romagna.] iii

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 i Homer, Mike. “The Church’s Image in Italy from the 1840s to 1946: A Bibliographic Essay” in BYU Studies,
vol. 31, no. 2, 1991
ii Ibid
iii Ibid

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2013 October 18 Compiled, annotated and edited by Luise Poulton luise.poulton@utah.edu

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