Fortunio, Regole grammaticali, Venice, Sons of Aldo, 1541, nineteenth-century brown calf

Fortunio, Giovanni Francesco. Regole grammaticali della uolgar lingua, di messer Francesco Fortunio, nuouamente reuiste, et con somma diligentia corrette. Venice: Sons of Aldo Manuzio, 1541

First Aldine edition of the first book printed on the rules of the Italian language; it also contains critical comments on Petrarch and Dante.

8vo (158 x 102 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: A-F⁸ G⁴: 52 leaves (with a number of leaves bound in at before and after). Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso, early ink caricature in lower margin of E1. (C7 with slight loss at lower corner and upper margin, C8 and D8 with slight loss at upper margin, stray soiling.)

binding: Nineteenth-century brown calf, covers tooled blind with a blind-tooled floral border, spine in five compartments with two morocco lettering pieces, marbled endpapers, red, blue and brown speckled edges. (A bit rubbed, stray stains.)

provenance: Unidentified owner, inscription, “GL 1935,” on oval tag laid down on initial blank. acquisition: Purchased from Le Conte, 1972. references: UCLA 300; Renouard 122/2; Edit16 19580; USTC 830421