Pedro Damiano da Odemira | Libro da imparare giocare à scachi, Rome, von der Lasa copy

Pedro Damiano da Odemira 

Libro da imparare giocare à scachi. [Rome: printer of the undated bilingual Damiano editions, c.1535]

Chancery 8vo (157 x 100 mm). Collation: A–H⁸: 64 numbered leaves, gothic type, with title-page in roman type: 28 lines, title-page with woodcut of a chess game in progress (reusing block from 4th edition), woodcuts, woodcuts of the six chessmen (same blocks as 5th edition), 92 woodcut chess diagrams (same blocks as 4th edition), early card wrappers with manuscript title on spine and pen trial to upper board, covered by modern tree calf-patterned paper wrappers, some spotting, modern paper wrappers partially glued to backstrip

Sixth (third 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:

Baron Von der Lasa (1818–1899, legendary German chess master and chess historian): bookplate and bibliographical annotations in pencil to title

LITERATURE:

Van der Linde I, 342; Sander 2296