Prima parte delle novelle di Ascanio de' Mori da Ceno.

Woodcut printer's device on title page, with woodcut headpieces, ornaments and initials, some historiated, throughout. Italic type. 

4to (205 x 150mm). [4]ff. 139, [1] pp. Vellum, gilt bands on spine, label with gilt-lettered title (minor bumping to extremities). 

Mantua, Francesco Osanna,

First edition, with child's manuscript handwriting exercise.

First edition of these fifteen novelle, or short stories, by Ascanio de Mori (1532-91) with childish annotations. Dedicated to Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, each of the stories is dedicated to individual members of the nobility, principally those of the Medici and Gonzaga families. De Mori's own livelihood and career were closely tied to the Gonzagas, having served as a soldier under Orazio in Hungary against the Turks, and subsequently made provincial administrator of Ceresara (near Mantua, the Gonzaga seat) by members of the same family. In the dedication, De Mori expresses his profound gratitude and devotion to Vincenzo, in whose 'fortunatissima ombra' the writer says he has flourished. 

Described as the 'first part', this volume of novelle was evidently intended to be the start of a longer, multi-volume collection that was never completed. The stories here cover themes familiar from those of Bandello or Boccaccio, with trickery, jealousy, twists of fate and coincidence featuring strongly; the third story, for example, tells the tale of a messenger carrying a pardon for a criminal who, stopping to watch an execution just as he arrives, delivers his message too late. 

Faint handwritten note on p.137 in imitation of dedicatory titles, 'molto mag.co sr. mio...', charming annotations in an eighteenth-century (?) hand on the errata page on the verso of the final leaf in this volume. The title of the page - "Errori dell'Opera…" - has been painstakingly copied out, presumably as a handwriting exercise, and below it the names of members of the Rossati family - Maddalena, Antonia, Pietro, Anna and Josepho - all in the same deliberate, young hand. 

Leaves trimmed, with repairs to head of title page and final two leaves, and pen facsimile of title headpiece and page number on penultimate leaf; small portions of page number and head missing on recto of final leaf and small tear to gutter, repaired. Minor worming of second leaf; general foxing and staining throughout. 

BMSTC (Italian), p.449. CNCE, 47029. (Not in Adams). 

Stock Code: 227693