{"product_id":"anton-francesco-doni-s-la-libraria","title":"La Libraria: The First Survey of Italian Printed Books","description":"\u003cp\u003eDONI, Anton Francesco. \u003cem\u003eLa libraria del Doni fiorentino.\u003c\/em\u003e Venice: Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari \u0026amp; Fratelli, 1550.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA landmark of Renaissance bibliography and one of the earliest attempts to map an entire national literary culture through print: Anton Francesco Doni’s \u003cem\u003eLa Libraria\u003c\/em\u003e, the first bibliography in a European vernacular language and the first systematic survey of Italian printed books.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePrinted in Venice by the great Giolito press in 1550, the present copy belongs to the enlarged and censored second Giolito issue, recomposed in a denser setting and revised following Doni’s bitter quarrel with Lodovico Domenichi. Preserved in an attractive nineteenth-century vellum binding and carrying the provenance of the great modern collector T. Kimball Brooker, the volume survives as both an important bibliographical monument and a revealing witness to the rivalries, ambitions, and politics of Renaissance literary culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVenice and the Birth of Literary Bibliography\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFew books capture the intellectual world of Renaissance Venice more vividly than \u003cem\u003eLa Libraria\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eConceived by the polymath, satirist, editor, and man of letters Anton Francesco Doni, the work attempted something radically new: not merely listing books, but charting the broader ecosystem of Italian literary production itself. Authors, translators, printers, vernacular works, and commercial book culture all appear within its pages, transforming the book into a compact map of mid-sixteenth-century Italian intellectual life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt the moment of publication, Venice stood at the centre of European printing. Through presses such as that of Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari, vernacular Italian literature was becoming increasingly standardized, portable, and commercially successful. Doni’s bibliography emerged directly from this explosion of print culture and reflects the growing interconnectedness of literary reputation, translation, commerce, and publishing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn many respects, \u003cem\u003eLa Libraria\u003c\/em\u003e anticipates the modern idea of national bibliography centuries before such projects formally existed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Giolito Edition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe present edition was printed by Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari \u0026amp; Fratelli, among the most important publishing houses of the Italian Renaissance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGiolito’s editions helped define the appearance of vernacular Italian literature during the Cinquecento, combining elegant typography, portable formats, and commercial sophistication. His famous phoenix device appears prominently on both the title page and the verso of the final leaf, lending the volume strong visual identity and immediate recognizability among collectors of Renaissance printing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis second Giolito issue was substantially recomposed from the earlier edition. The text was reset in a denser format of 42 lines per page rather than the 34-line setting of the earlier printing, allowing Giolito to incorporate additions and corrections and create a fuller, more commercially useful bibliographical survey.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eScholars have suggested that although the title page retains the date 1550, the present enlarged issue may in fact have been released in 1551 for circulation together with Doni’s \u003cem\u003eSeconda libraria\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eThe Censored Domenichi Issue\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe present edition possesses additional historical significance because it preserves visible traces of literary censorship and personal rivalry within the Renaissance republic of letters.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing a serious quarrel between Doni and the writer Lodovico Domenichi, Doni reportedly denounced his former collaborator to the Inquisition. In the present revised issue, references to Domenichi were systematically suppressed compared to the earlier state of the work.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe bibliography therefore becomes more than a neutral catalogue of books. It also records the tensions, jealousies, reputational conflicts, and political pressures shaping literary culture in Renaissance Italy. A work intended to document the world of authors and printers simultaneously reveals the instability of that world itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePrinted Features\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe title page bears the large woodcut Giolito phoenix device, repeated again on the verso of the final leaf above the register.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe text is decorated throughout with woodcut historiated initials, among them a particularly striking large initial “L” opening the “Ai lettori” address. The initial contains a comic-erotic scene characteristic of the lively ornamental vocabulary used in sixteenth-century Venetian printing. Although likely drawn from the printer’s reusable stock rather than designed specifically for this text, it perfectly complements the worldly, satirical, and playful atmosphere associated with Doni himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe impressions throughout remain generally crisp and well inked, preserving the visual appeal of the italic types, phoenix devices, and decorative initials particularly well.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProvenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePurchased in 1990 from the Dutch antiquarian bookseller and bibliographer Bob de Graaf of Nieuwkoop.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLater in the celebrated library of T. Kimball Brooker, retaining the characteristic Brooker red bookplate and collection tag from the \u003cem\u003eBibliotheca Brookeriana\u003c\/em\u003e. The volume subsequently appeared in the Sotheby’s dispersal of the Brooker collection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA later pencil bibliographical note on the front flyleaf identifies the issue and cites both Bongi and Ricottini Marsili-Libelli, recording the variant final leaves and suppression of Domenichi’s name. The note remains an interesting witness to the book’s modern scholarly handling and bibliographical study.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eBinding\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLate nineteenth-century vellum binding, approximately 133 × 81 mm, with title lettered vertically in black along the spine, blue edges, and marbled endpapers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe restrained vellum binding suits the scholarly and bibliographical nature of the work particularly well while preserving the tactile charm of the small-format Renaissance original.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eCondition\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVery good antiquarian condition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eComplete. Pages generally crisp and well preserved with light foxing toward the conclusion. Joints firm. Marbled endpapers with some damage to the upper pastedown from the removal of an earlier bookplate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe volume remains attractive, sound, and highly readable, preserving the Giolito phoenix devices, historiated initials, register, and Brooker provenance materials.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eReferences\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdams D817; Mortimer, \u003cem\u003eHarvard Italian 16th Century Books\u003c\/em\u003e, 163; USTC 827610; EDIT16 CNCE 17683; Ricottini Marsili-Libelli, \u003cem\u003eAnton Francesco Doni\u003c\/em\u003e no. 22. For broader discussion see Giordano Castellani, “‘Non tutto ma di tutto’: La Libraria del Doni,” \u003cem\u003eLa Bibliofilía\u003c\/em\u003e 114 (2012), pp. 327–352.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46861379305660,"sku":null,"price":1800.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1285\/3436\/files\/doni.png?v=1779514986","url":"https:\/\/atelierzweig.com\/products\/anton-francesco-doni-s-la-libraria","provider":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}