{"product_id":"the-most-beautiful-of-all-soncino-books","title":"The Most Beautiful of All Soncino Books","description":"\u003ch3\u003eMarcus Vigerius’ \u003cem\u003eDecachordum Christianum\u003c\/em\u003e Printed on Vellum by Girolamo Soncino in 1507\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVigerius, Marcus. \u003cem\u003eDecachordum christianum Iulio II Pont. Max. dicatum.\u003c\/em\u003e Fano [then Pesaro], Hieronymus Soncinus, 1507.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the great illustrated books of the Italian Renaissance and widely regarded as the most beautiful book ever printed by the celebrated Jewish printer Girolamo Soncino.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePrinted on vellum in elegant humanist type and illustrated with ten monumental full-page cuts and thirty-three smaller Passion scenes, the \u003cem\u003eDecachordum Christianum\u003c\/em\u003e stands at the intersection of Renaissance devotional culture, Venetian artistic influence, and the extraordinary mobility of early sixteenth-century Jewish printing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOnly a handful of vellum copies of the first edition survive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eEdition \u0026amp; Bibliographic Information\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDecachordum christianum Iulio II Pont. Max. dicatum.\u003c\/em\u003e Fano [then Pesaro], Hieronymus Soncinus, 1507. aa8 a10 b-z8 \u0026amp;8 A10 B-E8 F10 AA-BB8 = 7 [instead of 8] leaves supplied from another copy, 246 numbered leaves, 16 leaves. Printed on vellum.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIllustrated with ten large full-page cuts within elaborate four-part border frames and thirty-three smaller cuts, most on criblé grounds. Folio (310 × 203 mm).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEarly nineteenth-century midnight-blue morocco binding by Charles Lewis with richly gilt spine and covers, vellum doublures, double vellum endleaves, and gilt edges over red. Preserved in a modern blue half-morocco case. First gathering supplied from another copy; blank leaf aa8 lacking; occasional light yellowing to hair side of vellum.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eGirolamo Soncino and Renaissance Italy\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFew printers of the Renaissance led lives as restless and cosmopolitan as Girolamo Soncino.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBorn into the famous Jewish Soncino printing dynasty, he moved continuously across Italy in response to opportunity, patronage, and religious pressure: Brescia, Barco, Fano, Pesaro, Ortona, Rimini, Cesena, Salonika, and finally Constantinople.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eDecachordum\u003c\/em\u003e emerged during his period in Fano on the Adriatic coast, a city regarded as comparatively tolerant toward Jewish printers and intellectuals. There Soncino assembled an extraordinary workshop including the humanist Lorenzo Astemio and the punchcutter Francesco Griffo of Bologna, one of the great typographic craftsmen of the Renaissance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe result was a book that contemporaries and later bibliographers alike regarded as the supreme achievement of the Soncino press.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eMarcus Vigerius and the Life of Christ\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe author, Marcus Vigerius della Rovere (1446–1516), belonged to the powerful della Rovere family connected to Pope Sixtus IV and Pope Julius II.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAfter a major ecclesiastical career culminating in the cardinalate, Vigerius withdrew temporarily into scholarly seclusion in 1506 to compose this deeply meditative devotional work structured around ten pivotal events in the life of Christ. He dedicated the text to his cousin Julius II.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe structure of the book unfolds almost cinematically.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSeven grand full-page illustrations first guide the reader through the Annunciation, Nativity, and early life of Christ within richly imagined Renaissance interiors. The emotional atmosphere then darkens abruptly as the Passion cycle begins in thirty-three tightly compressed scenes printed against agitated criblé backgrounds that seem almost to vibrate with grief and tension.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAgain and again Christ appears on the Cross in repeated variations, creating what the catalogue brilliantly describes as an almost inescapable visual rhythm of suffering.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThen suddenly, after this oppressive sequence, comes the full-page Resurrection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eVenetian Renaissance Imagery\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe illustrations belong stylistically to the Venetian artistic world around Giovanni Bellini.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe full-page cuts are framed by elegant black-ground architectural borders, while the pictorial language itself combines devotional gravity with Renaissance spatial sophistication. Stable perspectives open into grand interiors; draperies acquire sculptural weight; sacred history unfolds with theatrical clarity.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe effect is extraordinarily refined for an illustrated devotional book.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eScholars have debated the identities behind certain monograms within the cuts, though none can be securely resolved. What remains unquestioned is the exceptional artistic ambition of the cycle as a whole.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eOne of the Great Vellum Copies\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eVan Praet recorded only three vellum copies of the first edition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis copy is the very example once offered by the London bookseller Longman in 1818–19 before passing into the libraries of George Hibbert and Beriah Botfield, two of the great nineteenth-century English bibliophiles. It was later rebound by the legendary binder Charles Lewis in sumptuous blue morocco.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe provenance alone places the volume within the highest tradition of European book collecting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProvenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLongman Catalogue, London, 1818\/19, no. 10069, sold to George Hibbert (1757–1837). Sold at the Hibbert sale in 1829 to John Bohn and then to Beriah Botfield (1807–1863). Later sold at Christie’s, London, \u003cem\u003eHighly Important Printed Books from Beriah Botfield’s Library\u003c\/em\u003e, 30 March 1994, lot 36.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eLiterature\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAdams V 746; Ascarelli\/Menato 201; Brunet V, 1216; De Marinis 214; Essling I, 145; Fumagalli 119; Mortimer, \u003cem\u003eItalian\u003c\/em\u003e 537; Sander 7589; Servolini 112–115; Van Praet I, no. 413; among others.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor a fuller scholarly description and illustrations, see \u003cem\u003eWunderkammer\u003c\/em\u003e Catalogue 90, number 15:\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/heribert-tenschert\/docs\/katalog_90_vol_1_web?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"\u003eWunderkammer Catalogue 90, Volume I\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46845597876412,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1285\/3436\/files\/p150_img01.jpg?v=1779302051","url":"https:\/\/atelierzweig.com\/products\/the-most-beautiful-of-all-soncino-books","provider":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}