Francesco Sansovino (1521-1583): Del governo de i Regni et delle Repubbliche cosi antiche come moderne…Venice, 1561

Description

DEL GOVERNO DE I REGNI ET DELLE REPUBBLICHE COSI ANTICHE COME MODERNE LIBRI XVIII, NEI QUALI SI CONTENGONO I MAGISTRATI, GLI OFFICI & GLI ORDNI PROPRIJ CHE S’OSERVANO NE PREDETTI PRINCIPATI.

 In Venetia : [Francesco Sansovino] (In Venetia : appresso Francesco Sansouino, 1561)

 In-4to (198×145 mm, leaves [4], 203 [i.e. 200], [2]. Woodcut device of Francesco Sansovino on titlepage (crescent moon shining on reclining man, in decorated frame), several woodcut initials, Italic letters; stamps erased at titlepage, interior extremely fresh, almost no imperfections, few mistakes in pagination but complete. Collated on 01.12.2024. Bound in coeval vellum, manuscript title at spine; spine with missing vellum at the bottom.

Comments:

First edition of this important political and historical work, with myriads of observations and statistical data on some Italian states of the time (Papal State, Republics of Genoa, Lucca and Venice) and the main states of modern Europe, such as France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland; there are also Asian kingdoms (Persia and Turkey) and African ones (Tunis and Fez).

The last book contains a summary of Thomas More’s Utopia.

Francesco Tatti da Sansovino, son of the renowned sculptor and architect Jacopo, was a humanist, polygrapher and translator from Greek and Latin, opening his own printing press in Venice. He commented extensively on Renaissance works (Sannazzaro, Ariosto, Guicciardini, Bembo but also Dante, Petrarca and Boccaccio). Worth noting the extremely successful Dante’s “Nasone” Commedia edition commented by Sansovino and published by Sessa in 1564 (reprinted in 1578 and 1596).

Bibliography: Edit16 CNCE 31053