Lando, Della vera tranquillità dell'animo, Venice, Sons of Aldo, 1544, nineteenth-century three-quarter morocco, Fortescue family copy

Lando, Ortensio. Della vera tranquillità dell'animo. Opera utilissima, & nuouamente composta dalla illustrissima signora la signora Isabella Sforza. Venice: Sons of Aldo Manuzio, July 1544

First edition of this influential treatise of Christian devotion, peppered with references to classical culture and largely written by the natural daughter of Giovanni Sforza, lord of Pesaro, and wife of Cipriano del Nero, a wealthy Florentine merchant. The dedication is signed by Tranquillo, a penname of Ortensio Lando (1510-1558), who was a prolific Reformed propagandist as well as one of the masters of Renaissance satire.

4to (215 x 154 mm). Roman type, 25 lines plus headline. collation: A-M⁴ N⁶: 54 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso. (Scattered staining, primarily to margins, blank margins of title-page repaired, upper blank margin wormed from I3 to end, last quire chipped along blank margins.)

binding: Nineteenth-century three-quarter morocco over red pasteboards (220 x 158 mm), spine gilt. (Lightly rubbed and scuffed.)

provenance: Hon. George Matthew Fortescue (1791-1877) — Fortescue, family library (Dropmore) — by descent to John Desmond Grenville Fortescue (1919-2017) — Christie's London, 24 March 1971, lot 131 — Bernard Quaritch, London, purchased in previous sale (£30). acquisition: Purchased from Bernard Quaritch, London, 1973. references: UCLA 318; Renouard 129/1; Edit16 26949; USTC 837258