Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Pages in excellent condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> A plain little volume it has no illustrations. Daniel and N.W. an Oxford friend of Daniel’s who wrote a preliminary letter of comme- dation for the book show themselves well acquainted with the other great codifier of the laws of the device Girolamo Ruscelli. As early as 1556 Ruscelli had added a Discorso intorno all’inuentioni delle imprese to the Venice edition of Giovio and he prefaced his great collection of devices Le Imprese illustri published at Venice in 1966 with an abbre viated version of this dissertation. Ruscelli took issue with Giovio on a number of matters but his most important objection was to Giovio’s rule that human figures should not be used in devices. He pointed out quite rightly that in this Giovio’s practice had not been consistent with his precept and that no later book of imprese had followed him. Le Imprese illustri set the pattern for future collections of the kind. Each device is engraved under the name of its illustrious bearer and is followed by a long and learned exposition of its meaning and purpose occasionally illustrated by other devices. A feature of the illustrations in this and later Italian books of devices are the extremely elaborate cartouche frames enclosing the devices. Sometimes indeed Ruscelli had device and frame engraved as full-page plates usually when the device was that of a royal or princely personage and in these instances the designs closely resemble those of the title-pages which are the theme of this book. In Italy the books of Giovio and Ruscelli were only the first wave of a flood of books of imprese illustrated and unillustrated. Already in the 1530s and 1540s the invention of devices had become a favourite amusement of the literary academies that flourished in Italy and some thing of their popularity can be attributed to this. The Regimento sopra la propriet? delle imprese con le particolari de gli Academici Affidati et con le Interpretationi et Croniche of Luca Contile published at Pavia in 1574 is a typical expression of this academic vogue It opens with a treatise on the history and rules of devices followed by an illustration of those of the members of Accademia degli Affidati at Pavia. The book was known in England and is cited together with Giovio and Ruscelli as an authority both by Daniel’s friend N.W. and by Abraham Fraunce in his Insignivm Armorum Emblematom Hieroglyphicorum et Symbolorum quae ab Italis Imprese nominantur explicatio published in 1588. Fraunce also cites the treatises of Alessandro Farra (Settemario 1571) and Scipione Bargagli (La prima parte delle imprese Siena 1978: fuller editions from 1589).