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Pavia, [Heirs of G. Bartoli for] G.B. Vismara 1594.
4to (205 x 140 mm.). 55, [9] leaves. A woodcut Bartoli device on the title.
17th-century gilt red morocco with the ARMS OF JEAN-BAPTISTE COLBERT, his gilt cipher in five spine compartments, gilt-lettered title, edges sprinkled red and green.
First Edition, second issue. The first of these two dialogs explores strength, patience, magnanimity, constancy and perseverance. The second discusses just war, the virtues of a general, the ideal soldier, the role of wives and military formations. They were composed for the interlocutors — Bernardino Bricennio (Bishop of Vigevano, d. 1588), his nephew Giorgio Manriquez (governor general of the army in Italy, d. after 1597) and Giorgio’s son Andrea (an army captain, d. 1613). The book first appeared in Alessandria in 1586. Vismara reissued the original sheets with a new first quire, including a dedication to the young Marco Antonio Landulfo, son of Vismara’s patron.
FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE GREAT BIBLIOPHILE AND PRIME MINISTER OF FRANCE, JEAN-BAPTISTE COLBERT, marquis de Seignelay (1619-83). It passed to one son, then the other, then to his nephew (Bibliotheca Colbertina (1728) 10485). Stamps of the comte Le Moyne de Martigny, Skene Library bookplate of Alexander William George Duff, First Duke of Fife (1849-1912, Catalogue (1898) 64). One copy in U.S. collections (first issue). In good condition (some pale stains).
¶EDIT16 CNCE 400097; see Terrone’s Le Cinquecentine della Biblioteca militare centrale 106 (1586).
Price: $4,500.00