Machiavelli | Discorsi and Arte della guerra, Venice, 1550, later English red morocco

Niccolò Machiavelli

Two Venetian editions from 1550 in one volume, comprising:

Discorsi... sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio, con nuova tavola... nuovamente corretti... Venice: Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari, 1550, small repair to foot of K12, small wormholes in gutter of quires N-O

Libro dell'arte della guerra... nuovamente corretti, & con somma diligenza ristampati. Venice: Gabriele Giolito de' Ferrari, 1550 (1551), woodcut and typographic diagrams of military positions and formations, without final blank, k5 shaved at head

2 works in one volume, 12mo (131 x 70mm.), woodcut printer's device on title-pages and at end, woodcut initials, early nineteenth-century English straight-grained red morocco, single gilt fillet border, gilt edges, slightly rubbed

Giolito also printed Machiavelli's Prince and Histories at this time; by the 1540s, all four of his political works were usually issued as a set. Shortly afterwards Machiavelli was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books and all Italian imprints ceased; John Wolfe's 1587 London edition of the Histories was, however, issued with the false imprint "gli heredi del Giolito".

The spine has the number 2 on it, presumably there was a matching volume containing Machiavelli's other works.

LITERATURE:

Edit16 46650 & 26991; Bongi, Annali di Gabriel Giolito de' Ferrari, vol. I, p. 320-321

PROVENANCE:

Newport Public Library, Monmouthshire, bookplate, ink stamp on first title-page, cataloguing information on verso of title-page (stamp and pencil notes), and small library stamps at end