Catalogus historico-criticus Romanarum editionum saeculi XV. in quo praeter editiones a Maettario, Orlandio, ac P. Laerio relatas et hic plerumque plenius uberiusque descriptas plurimae aliae quae eosdem effugerunt, recensentur ac describuntur: non paucae contra ab eodem P.L. aliisve memoratae exploduntur: varia item ad historiam typographicam et bibliographicam pertinentia nunc primum petractantur

4to (295x215 mm). XXVII, [1 blank], 476 [i.e. 480] pp. and [1] engraved plate with samples of printing types and printers' devices. Pages 465-468 repeated in pagination. Printer's device on the title page. 19^th-century half vellum, marbled panels, lettering piece on spine. On the title page bookplate “Bibliot Bonderici”. Clean, wide-margined copy. Uncut.

First edition of this early bibliography of incunables printed in Rome, that fills the gaps in Orlandi, Mattaire, and F.-X. Laire's Specimen Typographiae Romanae XV saeculi (Rome, 1778).

“Ein allgemein anerkanntes Meisterwerk, welches zwar die diplomatische Genauigkeit Hain's hinsichtlich der Titelkopien nicht erreicht, dem aber die Fülle gelehrter litterarischer sowohl als bibliographischer Bemerkungen einen ganz besonderen Werth verleiht” (Petzholdt, pp. 120-121).

Giovanni Battista Audifredi was appointed in 1749 as second librarian of the Casanatense Library in Rome, which belonged to the Dominican Order, of which he also had been a member since 1730. In 1759, he was appointed prefect, a position he held until his death in 1794. Under his leadership, the Casanatense Library experienced a period of true splendor: to the original collection of 25,000 volumes bequeathed by the library's founder, Cardinal Girolamo Casanate, Audifredi added thousands of volumes collected from across Europe (cf. P. Tentori, Audiffredi, Giovanni Battista, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 4, Rome, 1962, s.v.).

Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\UM1E\008285; Besterman, 3430; Bigmore & Wyman, I, 23; Ebert, 1352 (“Meisterwerk”); Haebler, p. 14 (“noch heute für die Inkunabelforschung von Bedeutung”).

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