Cremona fedelissima città, et nobilissima colonia de Romani rappresentata in disegno col suo contado, et illustrata d'una breve historia delle cose più notabili appartenenti ad essa, et dei ritratti naturali de duchi, et duchesse di Milano e compendio delle lor vite da Antonio Campo pittore e cavalier cremonese al potentissimo, e felicissimo Re di Spagna Filippo IIII d'Austria

[bound with:] EIUSDEM. Historia delle vite de' duchi et duchesse di Milano, Con i loro veri Ritratti cavati al Naturale Compendiosamente descritte da Antonio Campo, cavagliero, pittore, et architetto cremonese. Che è, in ordine, Quarto Libro della sua Historia di Cremona. In Milano, per Filippo Ghisolfi ad istanza di Gio. Battista Bidelli, 1642.

Two works in one volume, 4to (266x200 mm). [16], 228 (i.e. 224, missing pp. 161-164 in pagination) [24]; 32 pp. and [6] engraved plates (4 folding). Collation: †⁴ A-Ee⁴ a-c⁴; A-D⁴. With a beautiful engraved title page, woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces, and 33 in-text engraving portraits. The second work starts at l. A1 with a separate title page (Historia delle vite de duchi et duchesse) in an ornamental frame and with a central woodcut vignette. Paneled calf with lettering piece on the spine, ribbed spine, red sprinkled edges (slightly worn, hinges cracked, head- and bottom-spine damaged). A genuine, very good copy with wide margins.

Rare second edition (first edition: Cremona, printed for the author by Ippolito Tromba and Ercoliano Bartoli, 1585) of one of the most extraordinary Italian illustrated books of the 16^th-century, here reprinted with the addition of the Historia delle vite de duchi et duchesse. The author of both works is Antonio Campo, a Cremonese painter, architect, sculptor and historiographer, active mainly in Cremona and Milan between 1546 and 1587. The book traces the history of the city from its origins to the author's time.

The engravings of the work include: the allegorical title page with the royal coat-of-arms of King Philip IV; three folding plates showing a map of the city, the Tower and the Cathedral of Cremona; two full-page engravings depicting the Baptistery of the city; a folding plate after the l. Ee4 depicting a large map of the city printed in three leaves and dated 1583; the beautiful engraving at the l. B3 recto on the procession of the ‘carroccio' from the Cremona gate, whose profile stands out against the background; the oval portrait of Antonio Campo (164x136 mm) at l. †4 recto; and 32 medallion portraits of illustrious Cremonese as well as dukes and duchesses of the Duchy of Milan (the one at p. 72 is a woodcut). For some of these portraits the original source is given, i.e. that of Carlo V is by Giulio Campo, the author's brother, or that of Massimiliano Sforza, a copy of a drawing by Leonardi da Vinci.

The title page is engraved by Blanc, the portrait of Campo and the engraving of the ‘carroccio' are drawn by Campo and engraved by Agostino Carracci, while the folding maps are drawn by Campo and engraved by Davide Laudi (or Lodi).

Antonio Campo was author of valuable paintings and of important fresco cycles. In 1563, he was commissioned to set up the decorations in the occasion of the passage through Cremona of the Princes Rudolf and Ernest of Habsburg. In 1569 he worked in Lodi, where he executed the frescoes in the choir of the Cathedral. Between 1575 and 1577 he painted the spectacular Cremonese frescoes in S. Pietro a Po, S. Sigismondo and the Cathedral.

In 1571, Campo drew an important map of Cremona and its territory, presented to the City Council, which, in return, exempted the artist from all taxes. The map was engraved in reduced size and then included in the Cremona fedelissima, together with a detailed plan of the city of Cremona showing not only public buildings, but also private houses, including that of the famous poet Girolamo Vida. Campo also wrote a history of Cremona and a book on the works of art and on the artists of Cremona. The last two books remain in fragments and were dispersed like other manuscript treatises on agriculture, fishing and hunting. The Cremona fedelissima città was instead completed and published in folio in 1585 with a dedication to Philip II.

It is worth remembering that Campo's home, who first lived in the parish of S. Vittore (Grasselli), then in the parish of S. Elena in the house known as Casa della Colonna, often hosted learned and powerful men, such as Cardinal Sfondrati and the governor of Milan, Don Carlo d'Avalos; it also housed a famous library containing over six thousands of books.

Italian Union Catalogue, CNCE8843; OCLC, 493624041; Brunet I, 1526; Graesse II, p. 30; S. Zamboni, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, XVII, 1974; R. Almagià, Monumenta cartographica Italiae, Florence, 1929, p. 37, table XXXIX.

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