Catalogo delle storie particolari Civili ed Ecclesiastiche della Città e de' Luoghi d'Italia, le quali si trovano nella domestica Libreria dei Fratelli Coleti in Vinegia
(Venezia): nella Stamperia degli Stessi, 1779. (64). Item #64 4to. 245 x 190 mm. (9 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches). xii, (first leaf blank), 328 pp. 19th century cloth backed marbled paper boards; inner hinge cracked yet very sound. Bookplate of Anthony Hobson. Very good copy of a rare catalogue.
First edition. Catalogue of the Coleti Bros. collection of Italian local history, called by Archer Taylor, "a remarkable library...rare". The catalogue is arranged by city and describes the published works on the history and topography of each locality, including many smaller towns and villages in addition to the major printing centers of the country. According to Besterman the catalogue includes over 3000 citations and features an index of Latin names and authors, making it a useful bibliographical tool.
Coleti dedicates the book to Tommaso Giuseppe Faretti, whose own catalogue of books on local history was published by Jacopo Morelli in 1782 (see Morelli below).
Giovanni Antonio Coleti the compiler and printer of this volume, descended from a famous Venetian family whose fame rested on their erudition and scholarship. According to the dedication of the Catalogo, his uncle Niccolo Coleti (1681-1765) began the collection and left it to Coleti his brother to build as a monument to Italian history. According to a note written by Jonathan Hill describing another copy of the book, "the collection was sold by the heirs in 1834 to the bookseller Gaetano Canciani. . ." and in turn sold to England to Sir Richard Rawlinson Vyvyan, Eighth Baronet of Trelowarren in Cornwall.
Besterman, World Bibliography of Bibliographies, 2139. Taylor, Book Catalogues, pp. 136. Ottino & Fumagalli. Bibliotheca Bibliographica Italica, 4043.
Price: $1,750.00