La libreria di S.E. il N.U. Signor Leopardo Martinengo patrizio veneziano Conte di Barco, Condomino di Villanuova, Feudatario di Pavone, e Signor di Clanesso, cogli uomini illustri della chiarissima famiglia Martinengo umiliata al medesimo cavaliere dalla spettabile comunità di Calvisano

Autore: ZAMBONI, Baldassarre Camillo (1723-1797)

Tipografo: Pietro Vescovi

Dati tipografici: Brescia, 1778


BOUND FOR THE MARTINENGO FAMILY

4to (270x198 mm). [12], 138, [2] pp. Collation: *6 A-Q4 R6. Engraved coat-of-arms of the Martinengo family and engraved initial on l. *2r. On the final blank leaf R6r is pasted a leaflet with the errata. Contemporary mottled calf, richly gilt spine with morocco lettering piece, panels with four gilt corner-pieces and the Martinengo coat-of-arms gilt in the center within a gilt frame, marbled endleaves, gilt edges, pink silk bookmark (slightly rubbed). A very good, bright copy.

First edition of this interesting historical-bibliographical work, which not only provides an exhaustive catalog of the library of the Martinengo family and a brief biography of its most illustrious members, but also contains an account of the manner in which Zamboni organized the library, an account that in itself represents a true essay in librarianship. The Martinengo library, begun in the mid-seventeenth century by Count Francesco Leopardo II, was donated in the late nineteenth century to the Biblioteca Queriniana in Brescia.

Baldassarre Camillo Zamboni, at that time highly esteemed in Brescia for his versatile culture, was the author of many erudite works. He became a priest in 1742 and graduated in theology in Brera in 1746. In 1749, at the behest of Cardinal Angelo Maria Querini, he was appointed professor of theology at the seminary of Brescia. Between 1765 and 1766 he was librarian to Procurator Tommaso Querini in Venice. Shortly after his return to Brescia in 1767, he was entrusted with the reorganization and cataloging of the Martinengo Library, a task he carried out with great care and classificatory accuracy. Zamboni reorganized the material into eight classes (theology, natural philosophy, mathematics, moral philosophy, politics, literature, history, and erudition) and several groups of subclasses within which he wisely distributed the heterogeneous holdings of the collection (cf. A. Cotti, Camillo Baldassarre Zamboni ordinatore della Biblioteca Martinengo, in: “Viaggi di testi e di libri. Libri e lettori a Brescia tra Medioevo e età moderna”, V. Grohovaz, ed., Udine, 2011, pp. 147-170).

“In short, this was the catalogue of what could finally be called not only a real library, but above all a well-ordered one. It was a vast collection: the count of the publications tells us that in the 18th century the Martinengo family owned about 3,000 editions, a large number of which, according to Zamboni's precise indications, were precious and rare. A clear predominance was given to the type of books counted under the class of history, which alone accounted for 30% of the entire collection; a predominance that was certainly not accidental for a rich, powerful and very old family, firmly rooted in the city fabric, and which had given and continued to give to the city condottieri, politicians, men of letters and missed mystical saints” (Cotti, op. cit., p. 170).

Catalogo unico, IT\ICCU\TO0E\061418; Melzi, II, p. 127; Cicognara, 4667; Ottino-Fumagalli, 4145; Bonamici, p. 207; Cicogna, 3315.


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