Pedro Damiano da Odemira | Libro da imparare giocare a scachi, Rome, undated, fourth edition, the Rimington Wilson copy

Pedro Damiano de Odemira

Libro da imparare giocare a scachi. Rome: undated

8vo (154 x 99 mm). Collation: A–H⁸: 64 leaves, roman type, 28 lines, woodcut title vignette of two chess players, 6 woodcut text illustrations showing chess pieces and 92 showing chess moves, nineteenth-century quarter calf over marbled boards, some spotting and staining, library stamps to top and bottom edges of textblock, rubbed

Fourth (first undated) edition. Until Ruy Lopez (see lot 42), Damiano's Libro da imparare giocare a scachi was the standard sixteenth-century textbook on chess, addressing numerous topics, including openings and blindfold chess. It was the first book to state that the far-right square on the row closest to each player must be white. Sixteenth-century editions are rare at auction.

PROVENANCE:

Washed early modern ownership inscription to title-page; J.W. Rimington-Wilson, ownership inscription to title-page; by descent to H.E. Rimington-Wilson, his sale in these rooms, 27–28 February 1928, lot 311, £5, Bernard Quaritch, with their pencil collation note ("Perfect") to rear pastedown; Brooklyn Public Library, stamps to top and bottom edges of textblock and endleaf

LITERATURE:

Van der Linde I, 341; Sander 2294