This is a stolen book!

SANSOVINO, Francesco. Cento nouelle scelte da piu nobili scrittori della lingua volgare, con l'aggiunta di cento altre nouelle antiche, non pur belle per inuentione, ma molto vtili per l'eleganti toscane elecutioni necessarie a chi vuol regolatamente scriuere nella nostra lingua. Nelle quali piaceuoli, et aspri casi d'amore, et altri notabili auuenimenti si contengono. Con gli argomenti a ciascuna nouella per ammaestramento de' lettori al uiuer bene. Et con le figure poste et appropriate a suoi luoghi. Di nuouo riuedute, corrette, et riformate in questa quarta impressione.

Venice, Melchiorre I Sessa., 1571.

Quarto (204 x 144 mm.), [14] leaves, 245 (recte 243), without the blank leaf after 245, [6], 31, [1] leaves with woodcut printer's device on title page and one hundred, some repeated, woodcuts, one at the head of each tale, historiated initials of two diferent sizes. Ruth Mortimer points out that the novel of Polo di Bernardo mercante in the third day is illustrated “with a view of the Piazzetta San Marco in Venice, looking toward the clock tower. On the left is part of the Biblioteca Marciana, still under construction by Francesco Sansovino's father, Jacopo Tatti Sansovino. Twenty years earlier, Jacopo had spent some time in prison because of the collapse of the library ceiling in December 1545.” Lightly washed but a very good copy bound in XIX century citron morocco by Trautz-Bauzonnet, spine in compartments richly gilt, gilt edges. From the libraries of Lucius Wilmerding, Sylvain Braunschweig, C.N. Radoulesco and Joseph Manuel Andreini.

The most complete edition of Sansovino's ‘One Hundred Short Stories', the anthology of novellas from various Italian authors published in the Italian vernacular. Erroneously described as the fourth impression on title page, this is the fifth and best edition of the popular work, which received six additional Italian reprints after its initial publication in 1561 and suffered textual alterations with each successive reprint. In addition to the short stories, the present edition contains a dedication to Sigismondo de' Cavalli and a preface by Francesco Sansovino addressing the reader, as well as a section dedicated to the Discorso sopra il Decamerone. The Novelle antike is included at the end of the volume, as a separate section. Each story is also preceded by a woodcut illustration and a caption with an explanation to the meaning of each story. As the title suggests, this collection of short stories adapts the work of great Italian authors into a small narrative format, the novelle, which gained popularity as a literature genre during the Renaissance. In curating this anthology, Sansovino brings together a diverse array of narratives taken from sources such as the Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, the Fifty Short Stories by Masuccio Salernitano (also known as Novellino di Masuccio Salernitano), Girolamo Parabosco's Diporti, Giovanni Francesco Straparola's Pleasant Nights, as well as the Rime et prose vulgaris of Giovanni Brevio – among many other literary works. Francesco Sansovino (1521-1586) was an Italian author, poet, historian, and the son of the renowned sculptor Jacopo Sansovino. In his early years, Francesco studied law at the University of Padua. His legal background became apparent in his written works, which often reflected a blend of humanistic principles and a pragmatic understanding of political and legal systems. While Sansovino is better known for chronicling the history and virtues of Venice in Venetia, Città Nobilissima, the present volume is arguably a more impressive work, as one of the first anthologies of short stories published in Italy. “An efflorescence of popular history occurred in the second half of sixteenth-century Italy. Two phenomena made it possible: the preference for the vernacular as the language for the dissemination of knowledge and the growth of the Venetian vernacular presses. Sansovino was acquainted with nearly all the popular vernacular authors whose publishing careers centered in Venice: Pietro Aretino, Anton Francesco Doni, Ortensio Lando, Luca Contile, Andrea Calmo, Bernardo Tasso, Lodovico Dolce, and many others. [For his work,] He enjoyed some recognition with memberships in literary academies, and in 1573 was made a cavalier of the Order of Constantin.” (Grendler, p. 142) Through this collection of Cento novelle scelte, Sansovino's engagement with the cultural and intellectual currents of the Renaissance is made clear, just as well as his contribution to the flourishing of Venetian humanism and the popularizing of those same ideas to less scholarly circles. His works not only celebrated the beauty and significance of Italian literature but also played a role in promoting it to a wider audience.

USTC 854807; Edit 16 CNCE 30221; BMSTC Italian 606; Brunet V, 131; Graesse VI, 267; Andrea Jacková, Le stampe cinquecentesche delle Cento novelle scelte di Francesco Sansovino tra tradizione e censura; Paul F. Grendler, Francesco Sansovino and Italian Popular History 1560-1600.