FIAMMA (Gabriele) Lot n° 13

Spiritual rhyme. Venice, Francisco de Franceschi, 1570. In-8, 10 ff.n.ch., 514 pp. and 22 ff.n.ch.: ais and spine covered with pierced silver leaf, plates with a large decoration of spandrels, a central medallion and a semicircle of flowers, the parts left in reserve loaded with gilt copper, hinges, spine decorated in the same way, lining and endpapers of green silk, gilt and chiselled edges (16th century binding), black grief box. First edition and first issue of this collection of spiritual poems (sonnets, hymns, canzoni, etc.) by Gabriele Fiamma (†1585), a Venetian preacher who was ecclesiastical censor in Rome and bishop of Chioggia. Roland de Lassus set several of the 152 pieces to music. An important goldsmith's bookbinding of the period, whose decoration recalls those of 16th century bindings, particularly those produced in Venice. A rarity of this period. It comes from the Maurice Burrus library, which had acquired it from Lauria in 1939. Freckles and stains on a few leaves, small lack of paper in the margin of sheet H2. Without the last sheet, white. Modern green tabis guards. (Gamba, no. 1392 - Jean Balsamo, From Dante to Chiabrera, Barbier-Mueller Foundation, 2007, I, no. 166: "Important collection").