Mattioli, Discorsi, Venice, Valgrisi, 1585, contemporary limp vellum gilt

Pietro Andrea Mattioli

De i discorsi... nelli sei libri di Pedacio Dioscoride Anazarbeo della materia medicinale (Del modo di distillare le acque da tutte le piante). Venice: Felice Valgrisi, 1585 (1584)

2 volumes in one, folio (373 x 255mm.), woodcut printer's device on all three title-pages, woodcut initials, full-page woodcut portrait of Mattioli opposite start of text, numerous woodcut illustrations, contemporary limp vellum gilt with the Strozzi arms on covers with the initials AS, flat spine gilt, gilt edges, stubs of two pairs of green silk ties, title-page foxed, occasional staining or foxing through much of the volume, a few leaves browned, binding repaired at edges with new spine lining (possibly a remboitage as the foredges seem a little short), gilt edges a little rubbed

The numerous and fine woodcuts designed by Giorgio Liberale and Wolfgang Meyerpeck were produced for the Prague edition of Mattioli's herbal, issued in 1562, and subsequently taken to Venice to be used by Valgrisi in 1565. The portrait of the author appears for the first time in this edition, and the final quire contains Mattioli's Del modo di distillare le acque da tutte le piante. Mattioli's herbal was a great commercial success for the Valgrisi firm, who issued no less than 25 editions from 1548 onwards, often in print runs exceeding 2,000 copies.

LITERATURE:

Edit16 46810; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 295

PROVENANCE:

A.S., initials on binding with Strozzi arms; Francesco Gromo de Bergomo, bought from the bookseller Padovani in Florence on 26 November 1592, calligraphic inscription on flyleaf and at foot of title-page, and given by him to Giovanni Nardi in 1605