(Biblioteca Capponiana). Catalogo della Libreria Capponi o sia de' libri Italiani de fu Marchese Alessandro Gregorio Capponi. . .con annotazioni in deversi luoghi, e coll'appendice de' libri latini, delle miscellanee, e dei manoscritti in fine.
Roma: Appresso il Bernabo e Lazzarini, 1747. Item #67
4to. 263 x 198 mm. (10 1/4 x 8 inches). xii, 476 pp. Title-page in red and black, with an engraved bignette portraying the hall of the Capponi Library; decorative woodcut initial letter throughout. Uncut copy printed on strong paper; some scattered foxing and a few spots most prominently on the half-title. Contemporary paste-paper boards, title and date in ink on the spine. Expert paper repair to joints and hinges, boards toned by dust. With faults a very good, large copy on thick paper.
First edition. A large copy of this seminal catalogue of 5,000 books and manuscripts documenting the history of Italian literature, especially during the 13th - 16th centuries. There are numerous editions of Petrach, Dante, and Boccaccio as well a signficatant number of edition of tales chivalry and early French romances. The collection is also deep in first and early editions of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso and many of the late 16th century writers. Capponi's library also reflects his interest in classical authors, which reflected his interest in early archeology and excavation of ancient Rome.
The catalogue was compiled by Alessandro Pompeo Berti with scholarly notes by Domenico Georgi. It is this scholarship that gives the catalogue its importance as a tool for research today. Hayn, Ebert, Besterman, and Archer Taylor all agree, that it "will aid a student of Italian literary history", especially for the number of early vernacular works that it describes.
Brunet, Manuel du Libraire, I, p. 1639. Besterman, World Bibliography of Bibliographies, 2124. Taylor, Book Catalogues, p. 105 & 208. Bono, Storia delle biblioteche fra Settecento e Novecento, 1988.
Price: $1,200.00