Emiliano, Giovanni Stefano

8vo (155 x 99mm.), woodcut Aldine device on title-page (Fletcher 3), late nineteenth-century limp vellum, occasional slight spotting or staining throughout

Samuel Melton Fisher (1859-1939), the painter, who acquired it in Venice in the late nineteenth century; he married an Italian, Alba Stefani. Giovanni Stefano Emiliano has been connected with the Stefani family (see DBI).

Aldo Manuzio tipografo 1494-1515, 87 (Marciana copy); Censimento 16 CNCE 18079 (Biblioteca Ambrosiana and Biblioteca nazionale Marciana); Renouard 46/5; IA 100.789 (listing copies in Munich and Vienna); Worldcat also lists copies in the Bibliothèque nationale de France and Heidelberg.

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

A RARE EARLY ALDINE IMPRINT, recorded in just two copies in Italian libraries and absent from all the major Aldine collections worldwide (the Ahmanson-Murphy Aldine Collection at UCLA, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center in Austin TX, the John Rylands Library in Manchester, the Pierpont Morgan Library in NY).

This small publication may well have formed part of Aldus's campaign in the years 1503-1505 to persuade Maximilian I to found an academy at his court in Germany, not a version of the somewhat narrow intellectual circle of Aldus's New Academy in Venice, but a larger scale institution, perhaps similar to Cardinal Ximenes's Complutensian University (also with its own printing press) and other trilingual colleges. The idea never came to fruition, despite Aldus's perserverance, probably because of Maximilian's perennial lack of funds and the changing political situation.

"Ce mince volume, première édition de ces cinq petits poèmes, est très rare" (Renouard).