DECORATED EDGES

Bonamici, Castruccio: Operum pars prima continens de rebus ad velitras gestis anno MDCCXLIV et de bello italico commentarios [bound with]: [id]: Operum pars altera continens orationes, et carmina latine, et Italice. Augustae Vindelicorum [i.e. Augsburg], n.pr., 1764.  

Copy in attractive binding of the first collected edition of the works of Italian historian Castruccio Bonamici (1710-1761), illustrated with an engraved frontispiece of the author. Particularly striking are the edges, decorated with a floral pattern in orange and blue. A note to the reader explains that some components had been circulating under a false name, while others (apparently more in part two) were previously unpublished. Following a short biography and geographical index, part one focuses on war, containing De rebus ad velitras gestis (first printed 1746) and De bello Italico (first printed 1750-51). Respectively, these texts cover the battle of Velletri (1744)—in which Bonamici participated—and the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). Part two includes Bonamici’s poetry in Latin and Italian. 

Details

Two publications in one volume, 20.5 x 14.5 cms, octavo, pp. xl, 359 [1]; viii, 253 [1]. Second publication lacking final blank. First publication with engraved frontispiece depicting the author. Throughout, woodcut headpieces and tailpieces, decorative initials. Small early pen trial(?) to first title page. Very faint traces of what appears to be ink bleed-through to rear pastedown.

Bound in quarter goat and decorative covering paper over boards, gilt lettering and gold-tooled decoration to flat spine, edges painted with a floral pattern in orange and blue. Condition (textblock): sigs. Q1 and Q2 in first publication stuck together at upper margin, significant browning, spotting, water staining. Condition (binding): worm holes and a few cracks to spine, some wear and soiling to paper.  

Bibliography:

SBN IT\ICCU\SBLE\010417. Outside mainland Europe, OCLC shows copies at Harvard, Illinois (vol. 1 only), Oregon, Princeton, UCLA, Cambridge, Oxford, and the National Library of Mexico. 

Parenti, Marino, Dizionario dei luoghi di stampa falsi, inventati o supposti… (Florence, Sansoni, 1951), p. 29. 

‘Bonamici, Castruccio’, Treccani, accessible via https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/castruccio-bonamici/