Notizia de’Novellieri Italiani.
Bassano, 1794. Item #1135 8vo. xxi, 3, 243 pp. Late 19th century red morocco spine and tips over marbled paper boards. Beautifully printed on thick paper, with wide margins. First edition of this catalogue of books of fiction in the library of Anton-Maria Borromeo. Borromeo (1724-1813), son of an illustrious family, was born in Padua and educated in the classics and science. He became a great collector of manuscripts and printed books and formed one of the first collections of Italian fiction. His Notizia de’Novellieri contains descriptions of 250 works, mostly of the 16th and 17th centuries, and includes significant commentary on the writers and subjects of this early novelistic tradition including Luigi Alamanni, Giovanni Battista Amalteo, Giulia Bigolina, Pietro Fortini, Vicenzio Rota, and other. It is the first bibliographical catalogue of its kind and was republished in 1805. After his death in 1813, his books were purchased by Payne and Foss in London and sold at auction in 1817. Brunet. Manuel du Libraire, I, p. 1121. Besterman. World Bibliography of Bibliographies, II, p. 1374. Taylor, Book Catalogues, p. 138. Gian Franco Torcellan, “Borromeo, Antonio Maria”, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, vol. 13. OCLC does not list a copy of this edition in the U.S. but there appears to be a copy at the Library of Congress and Harvard cites a copy of the 1805 edition.
Price: $950.00