Cento Favole Morali De i piu illustri antichi, & moderni autori Greci, & Latini, Scielte, & trattate in varie maniere di versi volgari da M. Gio. Mario Verdizotti: Nelle quali oltra l'ornamento di varie e belle figure, si contengono molti precetti pertinenti alla prudenza della vita virtuosa & civile. Con privilegio.

Giovanni Mario Verdizotti

RA Collection: Book

Record number

06/4106

Author

Giovanni Mario Verdizotti

Imprint

In Venetia,: appresso Giordano Ziletti, & compagni., M D LXX

Physical Description

[4], [1-]301, [9] p.: [102] illus.; 192 mm. (Octavo.)

[T.p., dedic.] - A I Lettori Giordano Zileti [with 1 full-page illus.] - A I Lettori. Del Padre, E Del Figliuolo, che menavan l'Asino [with 1 full-page illus.] - [Text, with 100 full-page illus.] - Tavola Di Tutte Le Favole, Con Le Moralità Sotto Ciascuna, Et Il Numero Delle faccie delle carte ove ciascuna comincia; Errori corsi nella Stampa.

Responsibility Note

The illustrations are unsigned, but in his address to the reader Zilotti states that both the text and the illustrations are by Verdizotti, and that Verdizotti based some of them on G. Faerno's Fabulae centum (1563). Both Verdizotti's and Faerno's illustrations are sometimes said to be 'after Titian'.

The work is dedicated by Gio. Mario Verdizotti to Conte Giulio Capra del Sig. Gio. Battista, Dottore, Et Cavaliere.

References

Harvard University, Harvard College Library Department Of Printing And Graphic Arts Catalogue Of Books And Manuscripts Part II: Italian 16th Century Books Compiled by Ruth Mortimer (1974), vol. 2, no. 523, p.724-5; University of Cambridge, Catalogue Of Books Printed On The Continent Of Europe, 1501-1600, ed. H.M. Adams (1967), vol. 2 no. V401.

G. Venturini, 'Giovanni Maria Verdizzotti, pittore e incisore, amico e discepolo di Tiziano', in Boll. Mus. Civ. Padova, 59 (1970), p.33-73.

P. Carnes, Fable scholarship: an annotated bibliography (1985); Fabula docet: illustrierte Fabelbucher aus sechs Jahrhunderten, ed. U. Bodemann [exhibition catalogue] (1983).

Summary Note

A variant issue has slight differences in the text of the dedication (described in the Harvard catalogue).

The hundred fables are each accompanied by one full-page woodcut illustration. The additional introductory fable about the father, the son and the donkey, and Zileti's address to the readers are each accompanied by a full-page illustration. The title is surrounded by an elaborate architectural border.

Provenance

The front pastedown is inscribed in pencil 'S:A:H:', i.e. S.A. Hart, librarian of the Royal Academy 1864-81.

Copy Note

The front loose endpaper has a 10-line pencilled note in Italian.

Binding Note

19th-century white vellum; red morocco spine-label lettered 'Verdizotti Cento favole - Titian', spine lettered 'R.A.' and 'Ven. 1570'.

Subject

Animals - Animals in art
Fables - Italian poetry - Italy - 16th century
Pictorial works - Illustrated books, Italian - Woodcuts - Italy - 16th century