[CATALOGUE OF CURIOSITIES] NOTE OVERO MEMORIE DEL MUSEO DI LODOVICO MOSCARDO 1672 RARE SECOND EDITION

[CATALOGUE OF CURIOSITIES] NOTE OVERO MEMORIE DEL MUSEO DI LODOVICO MOSCARDO 1672 RARE SECOND EDITION

£1,995.00

Tax included.

[MOSCARDO, Lodovico]. Note Overo Memorie del Museo di Lodovico Moscardo [...] Descritte in tre Libri... (-Parte Seconda). In Verona: Per Andrea Rossi, 1672.

Second edition; two parts in one volume; leather-bound; folio (29.5cm x 20cm x 3.5cm); pp. [4], 307, [1]; [2], 311-488; pagination continuous with some errors; Italian text; bound in contemporary limp vellum, smooth spine with title hand-inked in black; allegorical frontispiece engraved in copper by Alberto Pasio, second part with separate title-page in red and black; woodcut capitals, head- and tail-pieces; hundreds of illustrations in the text engraved both in wood and in copper; indexes to rear in double columns. Condition: FAIR to GOOD. Binding secure, the covers somewhat soiled and cockled. Lacking 6 preliminary leaves including letterpress title, plus a further 6 leaves (pages 169-170, 175-176,195-198,235-238). Contents with varying degrees of toning, spotting, browning, with some off-setting in parts. Small worm tracts to engraved title and to the gutter/margins of the first 60 leaves or so. A few corner creases. Remains of bookplate to front pastedown and with a couple of old biblioteca stamps throughout. Scarce.

Notes: Rare second edition, much enlarged from the first, to include many more illustrations and descriptions of the catalogue of the collection of drawings, paintings, antiquities, fossils, minerals, shells, corals, etc. of the Veronese count Ludovico Moscardo. The collection was assembled over some 30 years in the tradition of the humanist's "studiolo", it contained a wide variety of objects and incorporated the collection of Francesco Calzolari of Verona, which Moscardo acquired in its entirety in 1673, at this time it was one of the earliest private museums in Italy. The work is in three sections: the first section (cose antiche) describes and illustrates the antiquities, the second section (pietre, minerali e terre) lists over 100 minerals as well as petrified objects and fossils, and the third section (corali, conchiglie, animali, frutti ed altere cose) comprises corals, shells, preserved aquatic creatures, animals, vegetables and 'other things'. The wonderful illustrations are by Alberto Pasi. [Cicognara 3412; Graesse II, 613; Nissen, ZBI 2898].

← Back to Classics