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GIOVIO, Paolo (1483-1552). Pauli Iovii Novocomensis libellus de legatione Basilii magni principis Moschoviae ad Clemente[m]. VII. Pont. Max. [...] Colophon: Rome, Francesco Minizio Calvo, 1525.

4to (208x145 mm). [20] leaves. Collation: A-E4. Title page within an elaborate woodcut border featuring the printer’s device at the bottom. Colophon on l. E3v. Roman and italic types. Contemporary cardboards “alla rustica” with parchment reinforcements on the spine (worn, losses to spine, slightly soiled). Some light marginal staining and foxing, overall a good, genuine copy with wide margins. Provenance. On the title page ownership entry “Aureliae Gabiae”. Aurelia Gabbia Abbagara (1546-1609), a female scholar and printer renowned in early seventeenth century Rome for her extraordinary linguistic and mathematical skills, was related to the Armenian Abgar family. In 1593 Aurelia appears in the recordings of the notary Giovanni Prisco Giovenali on the occasion of the sale of a typography in her possession to Giovanni Stefano Scorza, for the sum of 500 scudi. According to the document, Aurelia worked as a “stampatrix” in via del Crocifisso and she was the widow of the “quondam March’Antonio Abbagaro”. A tombstone with a portrait and a commemorative Latin inscription dedicated to her is located inside the church of Santa Maria Egiziaca (the Temple of Portunus) in Rome (cf. C. Santus, New Documents on the Armenian Presence and Printing Activity in Early Modern Rome: Marco Antonio Abagaro (Sult‘anšah), Bartolomeo Abagaro and the “Typographia Gabiana”, in: “Revue des Études Arméniennes”, 2022, pp. 195-223). Her father was Giovan Battista Gabia (d. 1590). Born in Verona in the early 16th century, he was professor of Greek at the University of Rome from around 1553 until 1582. Alongside teaching, he was also active as a translator and editor of Greek and Hebrew texts (cf. E. Del Gallo, Gabia, Giovan Battista, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 51, 1998, s.v.). Rare first edition, dedicated by the author to the Archbishop of Cosenza, Giovanni Ruffo de Theodoli (d. 1527), of the first Western account of Russia. The work was reprinted by Froben in Basel in 1527. It was then translated twice into Italian: the first translation was printed by Imperatore in Venice in 1545, the second appeared in the second volume of Giovanni Battista Ramusio’s Navigationi e Viaggi (1559). It was also included in the collection Novus orbis regionum (1532) and Rerum moscovitarum auctores varii published in 1600. On title-page verso are three poems by Girolamo Delio degli Alessandri, Giano Vitale, and Pietro Corsi. On l. E3r is a poem by Benedetto Lampridio (1478-1540). In Vitale’s poem and on l. A2v there are references to a map of Moschovia, that is today known in only two copies. “The first printed map carrying name ‘Moschovia’ in its title was compiled in Rome in 1525 by Paolo Giovio (1483-1552). He announced it in Libellus de legatione Basilii magni (Rome, 1525), a book he published based on his conversations with Dimitri Gerasimov, an envoy to Pope Clement VII from Grand Duke Vassily III of Moscow. The map’s importance transcends Muscovy, extending to the other medieval Rusian states: the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Novgorod Republic, the lands of the sedentary and nomadic successors of the Mongol Empire (Tartaria), as well as the modern states of Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, and the Russian Federation. For a long time, only several manuscript renditions of the 1525 map were known issued in 1550s by the Venetian mapmaker Battista Agnese, while the printed version was presumed lost. An article in Imago Mundi Vol.72:1 (2020) reported the discovery of an original imprint of the 1525 map back in 2006 at Biblioteca Marciana in Venice. In fact, this was the second known imprint of the map. The first one was sold on December 7, 1993, by Sotheby’s in London and subsequently made its way to the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts (RGADA) in Moscow (D.A. Khotimsky, The two surviving copies of the 1525 Moscovia map by Paolo Giovio: A comparative study, in: “Conflict & Cartography. The 29th International Conference on the History of Cartography”, Bucharest, 2022). Dmitry Gerasimov, ambassador of Grand Duke Vasily III Ivanovich, arrived in Rome in June 1525. During his two-month stay, he was entertained and interviewed by Paolo Giovio on behalf of Clement VII. The Libellus is therefore the result of those conversations and was published for the occasion as a true “instant book.” In the history of relations between the Russian world and Western Europe, the years in which this mission took place represent a joint effort to bring the Principality of Muscovy and the Holy See closer together - no longer merely from an anti-Turkish perspective, but now also from an anti-Protestant standpoint, in line with the policy pursued since 1518 by Emperor Maximilian I, who sponsored the dispatch of ambassadors Sigmund von Herberstein (1516) and Francesco Da Collo (1518-1519) and supported the peace agreement between the Prince of Muscovy and the King of Poland. These were situations and events that had been unfolding for over a decade and had already aroused Giovio’s interest as early as 1514, when he devoted a section of the first book he wrote for the Historiae to the Russo-Polish War, a topic he later briefly revisited in the historical-political conclusion of the Libellus, dedicated to the major political and military events of the reign of Basil III. It can therefore be said that the reason for the Muscovite ambassador’s visit to Rome was, in essence and primarily, linked to current political events. The Libellus, which originated as a diplomatic account, subsequently gained popularity as a geographical text thanks to its inclusion, as mentioned above, in famous travel anthologies of the time (I. Melani, “Venire a unirsi con esso noi nelle cose della fede”. Un vescovo, un papa, un ambasciatore e “un re di nome non finto”. La Moscovia di Paolo Giovio e la sua tradizione ramusiana, in: “Paradigmi dello sguardo. Percezioni, descrizioni, costruzioni e ricostruzioni della Moscovia tra Medioevo ed Età moderna (Uomini, Merci, Culture)”, Viterbo, 2011, pp. 109-130). Paolo Giovio was born in Como. Because of his father’s early death, Paolo was brought up by his brother, Benedetto, himself a writer of distinction, of whom he speaks with admiration and affectionate gratitude. He took his degree in medicine at Pavia and at first yielded to his brother's kindly insistence that he should justify the expense of his training by practicing that profession, although he was already secretly bent on a literary career. Benedetto’s historical works on Como and the Swiss had excited his rivalry and such scholars as Pomponazzi, whom he heard at Padua, and Lodovico Celio and Giasone Maino at Pavia and Milan had increased his enthusiasm for letters. When, therefore, an outbreak of the plague drove him to Rome (probably about 1516), he found himself free to follow his inclination and he devoted himself to the writing of history. His ready tongue and pen quickly won the favor of Leo X, who thought (or at least said) that his History of His Own Times was second only to Livy. Leo gave him the rank of cavaliere with a pension. Hadrian VI made him canon of the cathedral of Como, remarking that it was a point in his favor that he was no poet. All the Medici were his friends, “by far the surest and strongest safeguards of my life and studies”. He was the constant companion of Clement VII with rooms in the Vatican and when that unhappy pontiff fled for his life during the sack of Rome, it was Giovio who flung his own purple cloak over the Pope’s too conspicuous white robes. His devotion was rewarded the next year by the bishopric of Nocera. Later, in 1530, we find him accompanying Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici to Bologna for the coronation of Charles V and in 1533 to Marseilles for the marriage of Catherine de’ Medici. The Roman Academy had welcomed him with enthusiasm and scholars had honored him with the dedications of their works. Until the fall of Rome his fortunes had prospered. In that catastrophe he lost many of his possessions including some of his manuscripts and retired for a time to the island of Ischia to bewail his calamities. His reputation, too, had begun to wane. The acclaim with which his writings had been received was gradually tempered by the suspicion that his talents were at the service of the highest bidder. Some of the talk was probably, as he would have us believe, the result of ignorance and envy, but his extravagant eulogy of the infamous Alessandro de’ Medici and his careless frankness as to his own attitude toward the subjects of his biographies certainly support the charges. Still he continued to find supporters. For twenty years he enjoyed the favor of Pompeo Colonna and among others to whom he owed benefits and encouragement were the Marquis of Pescara and his wife Vittoria Colonna, Ippolito d’Este, Isabella d’Este, the Marquis of Vasto, Giberti, and Ottavio Farnese. With the accession of Paul III, however, he fell out of favor at the Vatican. Unsuccessful in his efforts to induce the Pope to make him bishop of Como and disappointed in his hopes of a cardinal’s hat, he finally retired to Como and then to Florence, where he died on December 11, 1552. He was buried in San Lorenzo and his statue still guards the stairs that lead to the Laurentian library. Probably the occupation that gave Giovio most pleasure in his later years was the building and furnishing of the villa on Lake Como, where he collected the portraits of famous men, princes, soldiers, prelates, and scholars. Some of the portraits were originals, some were copied from statues, busts, or paintings. They are now scattered and only a few remain in the possession of his family. The copies made by order of Cosimo I may be seen in the Uffizi. Though Giovio left instructions in his will that not so much as a nail should be removed, Boldoni in his Larius (1617) laments the almost complete ruin of the villa. Whatever may be thought of his sincerity, as a writer Giovio commands our interest. If he is far from being Livy's equal, he shares with his greater countryman the “pictured page”. His work and letters are full of vivid descriptions, many of them those of an eye-witness, e.g. the horrors of the sack of Rome, the passionate scenes on the election of Hadrian VI, the plundering of his native Como by the troops of Pescara (cf. T.C. Price Zimmermann, Paolo Giovio, Princeton, 1995, passim; and B. Agosti, Paolo Giovio. Uno storico lombardo nella cultura artistica del Cinquecento, Florence, 2008, passim). Edit 16, CNCE21144; Adams, G-633; USTC, 833141.

03.09.2026 - 10:28

7500,- EUR

Govi Rare Books LLC

HAFIZ HIZIR ILYAS (ca. 1801-1864). Tarih-i Enderun. Istanbul, Matbaa-i Amire, 1276 [i.e. 1859-1860].

8vo (239x158 mm). 34 (index) pp., [1 blank] leaf, 503 pp. Ink stamp of Matbaa-i Amire on p. [1]. Title on table of contents: Vakayi-yi letaif-i enderun. Title from colophon: Letaif-i vakayi-yi enderuniye. Ottoman Turkish in Arabic script. Contemporary Turkish wallet-style leather binding, gilt tughra (Ottoman sultan’s calligraphic monogram) within a double gilt frame on the panels, gilt ornaments and frame on the overlapping extension, marbled endleaves (slightly worn and rubbed, spine repaired in the middle). Few leaves slightly loosened, some occasional marginal staining, a few leaves slightly browned, marginal tear to a leaf, overall a very good, genuine copy in a gift binding. First edition. Vekâyi-i Letâ’if-i Enderûniyye, commonly referred to as Târîh-i Enderûn, is the only known work of Hafız Hızır İlyas. It is a primary source on Ottoman palace life, detailing events, honours and ceremonies from the time at the Enderun, the imperial Ottoman palace school and court, with a particular focus on the reign of Mahmud II. The text vividly describes court ceremonies and social gatherings, as well as the complex relationships among palace officials. It also contains personal reflections on family dynamics, rivalries, and the ambitions of individuals within the Ottoman court. As a rare literary and historical bridge to the late period of Ottoman divan literature, the work offers insights into the lives and works of notable poets and scholars of the time. OCLC, 19173408; Özege, M.S. Eski harflerle, 11616.

03.09.2026 - 10:22

2400,- EUR

Govi Rare Books LLC

JEWS AND GYPSIES-OSNABRÜCK. Unsere, Von Gottes Gnaden Ernst Augusts, Herzogs zu Yorck und Albanien, [...] Verordnung, Wegen Abhaltung der Zigeuner, fremden Bettler, Bettel-Juden und anderer dergleich dergleichen Landstreicher. Osnabrück, G. Kissling, 1720

4to (185x148 mm). Pp. [8]. Unbound. Uniformly browned. Exteremly rare original edition of the ordinances, promulgated by Ernest Augustus of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1674-1728), concerning the administration of justice, policing and private law, with particular reference to Gypsies, foreign beggars, Jewish beggars and other vagabonds. More specifically, the decree prohibits gypsies, beggars and begging Jews (“Bettel-Juden”) to enter territories under the rule of Ernstest Augustus II, Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück. Inhabitants of his territories are forbidden to accommodate any of these vagrant groups, violations will be punished and denunciations rewarded. Children of such groups under ten year of age will be removed from their families and raised by Christian foster parents. Male gypsies will be branded with a hot iron and driven out of the country, re-entry will be punished by hanging. Other beggars (including Jews) found inside the country will be expelled and threatened with corporal punishment should they return. Prince Ernest Augustus was the youngest son of Elector Ernest Augustus and Sophia of Hanover, and the younger brother of King George I of Great Britain. He served as a military commander and later as the Protestant Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück from 1715 until his death, receiving the British title Duke of York and Albany in 1716. OCLC, 257873054 (1 copy at Göttingen).

03.09.2026 - 10:20

900,- EUR

Govi Rare Books LLC

Ansbach. Gesamtansicht.

"Wahrer Abriß und Portraict der Furstlichen Haupt und Residents Statt ONOLTZBACH des Furstentumbs Brandenburg Burggraffthumbs Nurnberg underhalb deß gebirgs". Kupferstich von zwei Platten von Wenzel Hollar. Links unten in der Platte signiert. Aus "Urbium Totius Germaniae Superioris ..." von J. Janssonius. Amsterdam 1657. 30,6:107,2 cm.

Sachgebiete: Deutschland, Graphik, Kupferstich, Topographie

03.09.2026 - 10:18

5300,- EUR

Antiquariat Christoph Müdsam

IONA, Giovanni Battista, tr. (1588-1688). Arbaʻa avne haǧ-ǧilionim mehat-tora ha-ḥadaša ašer neʻettaqu melišon romi lelišon ʻivri [hebraice] Quatuor Evangelia Novi Testamenti ex Latino in Hebraicum sermonem versa. Rome, De Propaganda Fide, 1668.

Folio (350x235 mm). [28], 395, [1 blank] pp. Collation: [π]4 ++-+++4 ++++2 A-Bbb4 Ccc6. Parallel text in Hebrew and Latin arranged in two columns. Half title, title within a typographic frame with the woodcut device of the Congretatio de Propaganda fide in the center. With four large woodcut vignettes at the beginning of each Gospel showing the Evangelists with their symbols, taken from the Arabic Gospels printed in Rome in 1590-‘91 by the Typographia Medicea. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Contemporary grey cardboards, inked title on spine (endleaves renewed). Some marginal worm tracks partly skillfully repaired, lower inner corner of the first quire repaired not affecting the text, some scattered browning due to the paper, all in all a very good, genuine copy. Uncut with deckle edges. First edition of the Gospels in the Hebrew translation from the Vulgate by the converted Jew Giovanni Battista Iona, who completed his version before 1639. The preliminary matter includes a dedication to Pope Clement IX, a twenty-two-page introduction printed in parallel columns in Latin and Hebrew, and the approbations. Jehudas Jona was born in a Jewish Sephardic family in Safed in 1588 and renamed Giovanni Battista in Warsaw in 1625. After travelling around various cultural centres in Europe, he settled in Rome, where he lectured at La Sapienza University from 1649 to 1664, and subsequently at the Collegio dei Neofiti until his death in 1668. Among his students was Giulio Bartolocci. Like other teachers of the discipline, he was also a Hebrew scriptor in the Vatican and an interpreter of other Eastern languages. In addition to teaching, he was intensely involved in apologetics. We know of his Hebrew and Latin sermons on the true Messiah and the descent of the Holy Spirit, as well as his translations of Bellarmine’s catechism, the Gospels and St Thomas’s Summa contra Gentiles. He died before completing the Hebrew version of the Acts of the Apostles, as well as various dialogues and polemical pamphlets against the Jews, which he left as manuscripts (cf. G. Rita, Le discipline umanistiche da Sisto V a Clemente XII (1587-1740), in: “Storia della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia de ‘La Sapienza’”, L. Capo-M.R. Di Simone, eds., Rome, 2000, p. 280). “Three main points may be adduced from [the introduction]. First, one particular reason for which Iona wished to read the Gospels in Hebrew was his belief – a widespread one – that the Gospel of Matthew was originally written in Hebrew. Iona was therefore hoping to find this original version of Matthew or, at least, an approximation to it. Second, the Hebrew versions of the Gospel of Matthew that Iona actually found – the translation included in Shem-Tov ibn Shaprut’s fourteenthcentury polemical treatise ʾEben Bōḥan (The Touch Stone) and the translation published in Paris in 1555 by Jean du Tillet and Jean Mercier – disappointed him greatly, since he deemed that they were written in poor Hebrew, or in what he calls ‘stammered language’ […] Iona believed that the rendering of the Gospel into ‘bad’ Hebrew was a polemical technique used by the authors of these translations in order to make the Gospel ‘despicable’ to Jews […] Third, Iona hoped that his own translation was written in such ‘pure’ Hebrew that may enable it to be perceived as being ‘like the rest of the Holy Scriptures’, that is, as being similar to the books of the Hebrew Bible […] Iona hopes that the reading of his translation will be convincing to some Jews and therefore bring about their conversion. It may be noted that Iona’s translation is one of the earliest Hebrew translations of the New Testament in which such a missionary aim is mentioned. Only in the eighteenth and nineteenth century did the mission to the Jews become a main motivation for producing Hebrew translations of the New Testament […] Regarding the Hebrew used by Iona in the translation, it may first be observed that it has some clear ‘biblicizing’ features […] Last but not least, it is not rare to find in Iona’s translation renderings of undeniable quality, that is, cases in which Iona manages to find a translation that both faithfully renders the meaning of the Latin expression or phrase and is idiomatic in Hebrew and resonates with Jewish culture” (E. Shuali, Giovanni Battista Iona’s Hebrew translation of the four Gospels, in: “Journal of Jewish Studies”, 2023, 74.2, pp. 408-428). In 1626, Urban VIII established the Polyglot Printing House of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith with the aim of producing publications for missionary work. The press soon amassed a considerable amount of typographical material (23 alphabets), which was augmented by oriental characters donated by the Vatican and Medici printing houses. The creation of new typefaces was entrusted to the punchcutter S. Paolini. The press mainly printed religious books, grammars and lexicons. Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\CFIE\007075; T.H. Darlow & H.F. Moule, Historical Catalogue of the Printed Editions of Holy Scripture in the British and Foreign Bible Society, London, 1911, vol. II/2, p. 716, no. 5136.

03.09.2026 - 10:17

1800,- EUR

Govi Rare Books LLC

Imago Mortis - Schedelsche Weltchronik.

"Imago mortis" (Totentanz). Kolorierter Holzschnitt aus der "Schedelschen Weltchronik". Lateinische Ausgabe. Bei Koberger in Nürnberg 1493. 27:22,4 cm. - Unter Handarbeitspassepartout.

Sachgebiete: Dekorative Graphik, Graphik, Holzschnitt, Totentanz

03.09.2026 - 10:14

2100,- EUR

Antiquariat Christoph Müdsam

VERGERIO, Pier Paolo (1498-1565). Actiones duae secretarii pontificii: quarum altera disputat, an Paulus Papa IIII debeat cogitare de instaurando Concilio Tridentino. [Basel, Johann Oporinus], 1556.

8vo (168x118 mm). 189, [3 blank] pp. Collation: a-m8. The last leaf is a blank. Contemporary vellum, spine subsequently reinforced (soiled, rubbed and worn, lacking the ties). Manuscript note on the title page partially inked out, two marginal notes in a contemporary or slightly later hand on ll. a2v and a3v. Title page soiled, small round worm hole affecting the first four leaves, some light foxing and staining throughout, all in all a good, genuine copy. Rare first edition of this satire on the council policy of Pope Paul IV, considered by Vergerio one of his most important contributions to this subject (cf. A. Hauser, Pietro Paolo Vergerios protestantische Zeit, Diss., Tübingen, 1980, p. 167), so relevant that he had reprinted it during his stay in Poland a year later (Königsberg, January 1557) with a dedicatory letter to Jan Lutomirski, castellan of Brzeziny (cf. L. Hein, Piero Paolo Vergerio und sein Auftreten in Preussen und Polen-Litauen, in: “Kyrios. Vierteljahreschrift für Kirchen- und Geistesgeschichte Osteuropas”, 5, 1965, p. 165). “Wie stark die Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Papst, Konzil und Religionsfrieden die deutsche Öffentlichkeit beschäftigte, zeigt auf protestantischer Seite die damals erschienen Schrift Vergerios ‘Actiones duae secretarii pontificii’. Diese Satire auf die päpstliche Konzilspolitik gehört literarisch gesehen zum besten, was Vergerio je schrieb. Er lässt den ‘Actiones’ einen Sekretär Pauls IV. auftreten, der dem Papst an zwei aufeinanderfolgenden Tagen Vortrag über die Konzilfrage und Deutschland hält. Vergerio hat das Manuskript dieser Schrift vor der Publikation von den französischen Gesandten in der Schweiz durchsehen lassen, mit denen er von Württemberg aus in ständiger Verbindung stand. Er konnte sich bei der Abfassung wohl auch auf unmittelbare Berichte aus Rom stützen. Seine dortigen Vertrauensmänner darf man am ehesten in der Umgebung des Kardinals du Bellay suchen […] Aber die Aporie von Konzil und Religionsfrieden, die er mit sarkastischer Feder darstellte, traf zu. Mit vorwegnehmender Schärfe zeigte er die Endgültigkeit, die dem Weg des deutschen Protestantismus von dem Reichsabschied des Jahre 1548 zu jenem von 1555 innewohnte. Er zeigte, wie diese Entscheidung über den deutschen Raum hinaus jeder Wiedereröffnung des Trienter Konzils einen veränderten und reduzierten Charakter geben wird” (‘The extent to which the question of the relationship between the Pope, the Council and religious peace preoccupied the German public can be seen on the Protestant side in Vergerio’s Actiones duae secretarii pontificii, which was published at the time. From a literary point of view, this satire on papal politics is one of the best Vergerio ever wrote. The Actiones features a secretary of Paul IV who lectures the pope on two consecutive days about the Council and Germany. Before publication, Vergerio had the manuscript of this work reviewed by the French envoys in Switzerland, with whom he was in constant contact from Württemberg. It is also likely that he was able to rely on direct reports from Rome. His informants there are probably to be found in the circle of Cardinal du Bellay […] But the impasse of the Council and the religious peace, which he depicted with a sarcastic pen, was true. With anticipatory acuity, he showed the finality inherent in the path of German Protestantism from the imperial decree of 1548 to that of 1555. He showed how this decision would give a changed and reduced character to any reopening of the Council of Trent outside of the German sphere’) (H. Lutz, Christianitas afflicta. Europa, das Reich und die päpstliche Politik im Niedergang der Hegemonie Kaiser Karls V., 1552-1556, Göttingen, 1964, pp. 469-470). Pier Paolo Vergerio was born in Capodistria, a few miles south of Trieste on the Istrian peninsula, which then was subject to the republic of Venice. He was the son of a local notable and the descendant of the renowned humanist Pier Paolo Vergerio the Elder. He obtained a solid education in his hometown before enrolling at the University of Padua, where he earned a degree in civil law in 1524. He cultivated humanist pursuits in the local circles and his first work, the dialogue De republica Veneta (1526), in which Pietro Bembo and Niccolò Leonico Tommeo are the interlocutors, provides evidence of his literary talent. Sponsored by his brother Aurelio, Vergerio entered papal service in 1532. Clement VII immediately put him to work as a diplomat, sending him first to Venice to promote a league against the Turks and then to central Europe as nuncio to Emperor Charles V’s brother Ferdinand. Here Vergerio received his first exposure to current political and religious problems. His initial reaction to the Reformation was visceral repugnance and alarm about the imminent threat of this penetrating Italy. Early in 1535, Paul III summoned him to Rome and gave him a new mandate: to assess support in central Europe for the convocation of an ecumenical council on which the Emperor was insisting. Vergerio crisscrossed the empire, visiting numerous Catholic and some Protestant principalities and cities. Most of those on whom he called, among them Luther (encountered unexpectedly at Wittenberg in November 1535), professed enthusiasm about the proposed council. But he gradually realized that for Paul III the project was merely a political ploy. He returned rather disillusioned to Italy in 1536, but confident that he would be appropriately rewarded for his services. But his nomination in May to the bishopric of Capodistria (Koper), a see with meager revenues further eroded by a pension payable to a papal favourite, disappointed him. Seeking a protector who could get his pension lifted, he accepted hospitality from various Italian princes and prelates, visited the courts of Francis I and Marguerite d’Angoulême, and attended the Worms-Regensburg colloquy (1540-1541). During these travels he also encountered the major exponents of the ‘spirituali’ (e.g. Pietro Carnesecchi, Bernardino Ochino, Reginald Pole, Marcantonio Flaminio, Renée of France and Vittoria Colonna), all of whom were proponents of renewal within the church inspired by the concept of justification by faith alone through grace. In summer 1541 he settled in his bishopric of Capodistria, taking the holy orders and beginning to implement his new convictions about reform. His vigorous efforts to root out abuses in the church aroused strong opposition. Soon suspicion was awakened such that on December 13, 1544, a denunciation of Vergerio was lodged with the Venetian Inquisition. Although, after due examination, Vergerio was released, Cardinal Marcello Cervini, later Pope Marcellus II, took advantage of the fact that Vergerio was not yet formally absolved to prevent his participation in the council for which he had labored so many years. He then began a publishing activity which turned more and more against the Roman Catholic Church. In connection with the painful case of Francesco Spiera (a lawyer, who had been forced to abjure and who died on December 27, 1549), Vergerio directed a sharp reply to the bishop of Padua. Instead of responding to a second summons by the Nuncio Giovanni Della Casa (who had initially opened the procedure against Vergerio) to appear before the tribunal in Venice, on May 1, 1549, he left Italy forever. The experiences at Spiera’s sickbed had brought Vergerio to a decision. The twelve treatises which he produced at Basel in 1550 supply information regarding his position. Meanwhile, a second trial had been conducted in Venice in absentia and was confirmed at Rome on July 3, 1549. Vergerio was convicted of heresy in 34 points, deposed from his episcopal dignity, and made subject to arrest (cf. A. Santosuosso, Religion ‘more Veneto’ and the Trial of Pier Paolo Vergerio, in: “Peter Martyr and the Italian Reform”, J.C. McLelland, ed., Waterloo ON, 180, pp. 43-61). His ‘apostasy’, the first by a bishop, evoked great excitement on both sides of the Alps. At that time, however, he was in the Swiss Grisons, and became active in a brisk round of polemics. His themes were the papacy, its origin and policy; the jubilees; saint and relic worship, and the like. Vergerio continued in the Grisons till 1553, when he heeded a call from Duke Christophe of Württemberg to write and travel on behalf of Evangelical doctrine. While he never again set foot in Italy, in 1556 he made his way to Poland, and conferred with Duke Albrecht of Prussia. He was in Poland in 1559 with the twofold purpose of meeting the moves of the Nuncio Luigi Lippomano, and of working against Johannes a Lasco. He sought permission to take part in the religious conference at Poissy in 1560, but he was not allowed to appear at the Council of Trent as the duke’s delegate. During all these years he continued his polemical authorship and worked toward the publication of his Opera, though only the first volume appeared (1563). He died at Tübingen in 1565 (cf. R.A. Pierce, Pier Paolo Vergerio the Propagandist, Rome, 2003, pp. 7-12). VD 16, V-634; USTC, 608697; J.M. De Bujanda, R. Davignon & E. Stanek, eds., Index de Rome: 1557, 1559, 1564: les premiers index romains et l’index du Concile de Trente, Sherbrooke, 1990, p. 360, no. 40; A. Hauser, op. cit., no. 120; F. Hubert, Vergerios publizistische Thätigkeit nebst einer bibliographischen Übersicht, Göttingen, 1893, p. 299, no. 108/2; H. Jedin, Geschichte des Konzils von Trient, Freiburg/Br.,1974, IV, p. 292.

03.09.2026 - 10:13

2800,- EUR

Govi Rare Books LLC

CROCE, Giulio Cesare (1550-1609). Descrittione del nobil palazzo, posto nel contà di Bologna. Detto Tusculano, del molto Illustre, et Reverendiss. Monsignore, il Sig. Gio. Battista Campeggi, Vescovo di Maiorica. Bologna, Giovanni Rossi, 1582.

4to (202x136 mm). 80 pp. Collation: †4 A-I4. Campeggi’s woodcut arms on the title page. Woodcut historiated and decorative initials. Roman and italic types. 19th-century quarter calf with lettering piece on spine (slightly worn). Some minor foxing and staining, marginl hole repaired to the last two leaves not affecting the text, a good copy. Extremely rare first and only edition of this poem, divided into three parts and consisting of two hundred and fourteen octaves, which provides a detailed description of the interior and exterior of the beautiful palace purchased by Giovanni Battista Campeggi, Bishop of Majorca, in 1567. Known as Tusculano, the palace was located four miles north of Bologna on the Saliceto (today Corticella) plain and became a gathering place for eminent learned and noble figures. The detailed account of the rooms (including the kitchen, the pantry and the cellar), frescoes, paintings, furnishings, silverware, drapery, leathers and crockery vividly depict the palace, which no longer exists today, while arousing curiosity and awe. As such, the poem is an excellent example of Croce’s poetics, which frequently finds inspiration in the enumeration of objects. The book opens with a dedicatory epistle to Giacomo Campeggi, primicerius of the Cathedral of Bologna, dated 21 December 1582, and a sonnet addressed to readers, in which the author admits that he is not very familiar with the Tuscan language. The edition bears the Campeggi coat of arms on the title page and is adorned with woodcut ornaments and initials at the beginning of each section. Also the choice of the 4to format (larger than Croce’s usual 8vo pamphlets) denotes the work’s illustrious destination. Croce felt most at ease in the piazzas, streets and taverns, rather than the palaces of the lords, although he always sought to be welcomed there. And when, quite occasionally, he happened to enter the luxurious villa of G.B. Campeggi, it seemed to him that he was entering an incredible, prodigious place that was completely foreign to his experience. He was so stunned and amazed that he felt compelled to describe every minute detail, from the frescoes and crockery to the furniture, books, draperies and linens. He could not tear himself away from it, lingering in his description for over two hundred octaves, a considerable lenght even for someone as generous as he was when it came to inventories of all kinds. Giulio Cesare Croce was a self-taught poet and storyteller who, due to his ability to bridge the gap between the cultured and popular worlds and between oral and written culture, occupies a unique position in the Italian literary scene. Born in San Giovanni in Persiceto near Bologna in 1550 to a family of blacksmiths, he received an irregular education and was supported by the Fantuzzi family of Medicina. He divided his time between blacksmithing and storytelling in Bologna until, in 1575, he devoted himself entirely to storytelling. He travelled from market to market, staying in the homes of the wealthy, but despite his popularity, he remained poor. He also spent some time in Venice, where he performed for local dignitaries. Appreciated by the renowned Modenese musician Orazio Vecchi for his talent as a versifier, Croce collaborated with him on the celebrated Amfiparnaso (1597), widely considered to be the first Italian “melodramma giocoso”. He died in Bologna in 1609. More than four hundred works are attributed to Croce, most of which were published in modest, poorly printed booklets. Written in Italian or Bolognese dialect, in prose or verse, his pamphlets contain lively descriptions of the lives of the poor, as well as jokes, humorous stories, proverbs and accounts of popular festivals and calamities. Edit 16, CNCE14310; USTC, 824852; O. Guerrini, La vita e le opere di Giulio Cesare Croce, Bologna, 1879, no. 81; Le stagioni di un saltimbanco, Bologna, 2009, p. 39; Una città in piazza, Bologna, 2000, pp. 151-152, no. 13; L. Frati, Opere della bibliografia bolognese, Bologna, 1888, p. 1035, no. 8106; P. Camporesi, Il palazzo e il cantimbanco, Milan, 2023, pp. 51-52; L. Strappini, Croce, Giulio Cesare, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 31, Rome, 1985, s.v.

03.09.2026 - 10:11

5000,- EUR

Govi Rare Books LLC