Fabrizi, Delle allusioni, imprese, et emblemi, Rome, 1588, contemporary limp vellum

Fabrizi, Principio. Delle allusioni, imprese, et emblemi del sig. Principio Fabricij da Teramo sopra la vita, opere, et attioni di Gregorio XIII pontefice massimo libri VI nei quali sotto l'allegoria del drago, arme del detto pontefice, si descrive anco la vera forma d'un principe christiano; et altre cose, la somma delle quali si legge doppo la dedicatione dell'opera All'Ill.^mo & Ecc.^mo S^r. duca di Sora. Rome: Giacomo Ruffinelli for Bartolomeo Grassi, 1588

First edition of Fabrizi's comprehensive work on the interpretations of the dragon emblem, written in response to Giacomo Boncompagni's request for a coat of arms which portrayed the family emblem of his father, Pope Gregory XIII, in a positive light.

In this highly illustrated work Fabrizi compiles possible positive meanings that could be attributed to the dragon, and reinterprets existing negative portrayals of dragons.

6 parts in one volume, 4to (248 x 176 mm). Italic and roman type. collation: *⁴ B⁴ A-Y⁸ Z⁴ Aa-Ee⁴ A-H⁴: 240 leaves. Engraved title-page, woodcut initials and head- and tail-pieces, 18 full-page engravings, 231 engraved emblems featuring a dragon (that on P5v printed upside down), engraving of Fabricius and the Samnites repeated at the end of each of the six books. (Tear to lower half of B4, quires K-M misbound, Cc2 with small tear to lower margin and border, 2 full-page engravings shaved at fore-edge, a few wormholes at beginning and end.)

binding: Contemporary Italian limp vellum (253 x 182 mm), manuscript title to spine and foot of text-block. (Upper cover slightly defective at head.)

provenance: [Carlo Alberto Chiesa, sold in 1958 to] — Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow, bookplate, sale, Christie's New York, 20 June 2013, lot 453. acquisition: Purchased at the preceding sale. references: Edit16 18476; Landwehr, Romanic Emblem Books 279; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 177; Rossetti 4817; Marco Ruffini, "A Dragon for the Pope: Politics and Emblematics at the Court of Gregory XIII", Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 54 (2009), 83-105