Lot 48: (École italienne) -[PITTONI, Battista (ca

(École italienne) -[PITTONI, Battista (ca 1520-1583).- Imprese di diversi Prencipi, Duchi, Signori, e d'altri Personaggi et Huomini Letterati et Illustri. VENISE, 1562]. In-8° oblong : 29 (on 51) textleaves with woodcut borders, 48 (on 52 ?) cupper engravings figuring 50 emblematic devices (1 plate cut short and 1 with damaged margins, several leaves with words, numbers and calculations in brown ink on verso and 1 on recto in the margin). Modern binding : full vellum, title in pen on flat spine (errounously entitled Imprese di Ruscelli 1562). Between 1562 and 1578, the Venetian painter Battista Pittoni published 4 series of curious emblematic interpretations of devices of outstanding men of the 16th century, mostly of the Italian Renaissance, a total of 220 engravings going with verses by Lodovico Dolce. Our collection of 48 plates, not numbered and with the stanzas in neat typography within decorative woodcut borders on separate leaves, belongs to the rare FIRST EDITION of the first set published in 1562 (see also the date on the Academia Olimpica plate of our copy). Most of the engravings show the monogram B.P.V. for Battista Pittoni Vicentini. # Landwehr, Roman 604; # Praz 457 ff.; # Cigognara 1937, 1938, 1939 (editions of 1566, 1578 and reprint of 1602); # Berin Kat. 4508 Provenance : William Salloch, New York (bookdealers pastedown); Lewis Einstein (modern ex-libris pastedown).