La prima [-seconda & ultima] parte delle vite di Plutarcho di greco in latino: & di latino in volgare tradotte & novamente con le sue historie ristampate. MDXXV

WITH 51 WOODCUTS ATTRIBUTED TO GIOVANNI ANDREA VALVASSORE

Two parts in one volume, 4to (219x155 mm). CCCIII, [1]; CCXV, [17] leaves. Collation: A-Z⁸ AA-PP⁸; a-z⁸ aa-dd⁸ Aa-Bb⁸. First title within a woodcut border. Second title printed in red and black within a woodcut border on black ground. First colophon at l. PP7v, second colophon and printer's device at l. dd7v. Leaf PP8 in part 1 and l. dd8 in part 2 are blank. Text in italics printed in two columns. With 23 woodcut vignettes in the first part and 28 in the second part attributed to Giovanni Andrea Valvassore (see below). Modern gilt leather in the style of a Renaissance binding, old manuscript title on the lower edge. On the front pastedown bookplate “M^r. Thomas William Coventry”; on the title page ownership's inscription “Gio. Maria Alli”. Small repair to first title-page verso, round wormholes on the outer margin of the last two leaves not affecting the text, some light staining and foxing, a quire browned, all in all a very good copy.

First illustrated edition of Plutarch's Parallel Lives in Italian translation. The first part, however, is a reprint of the Zoppino-Rusconi edition of 1518, which Zoppino reissued in 1525 together with the first edition of the second part. The first part was translated by Battista Alessandro Jaconello, whose name appears on l. A2r; the second part by Giulio Bordoni, whose name appears in the colophon. The gathering added at the end contains the life of Marcus Brutus.

"Plutarch's Lives in the vernacular of 1525, which follow the volume with the same title published in 1518 by Zoppino together with Giorgio Rusconi and Vincenzo Compagni, are accompanied by numerous small woodcuts, more than fifty in number, sometimes divided into two scenes, one for each character described […] Although they are not signed with a monogram, it is possible in my opinion to attribute them on the basis of the style to Zoan Andrea Valvassore, an engraver who usually signs his name z.a. and collaborated actively with Zoppino in the years 1515-1525. His biographical profile remains mysterious, but his initials are certainly among the most recurrent in our publisher's illustrated editions” (G. Atzeni, Gli incisori alla corte di Zoppino, in: “ArcheoArte”, 2, 2013, p. 302).

Essling, 598-599; Sander, 5788-5789; Olschki, Choix, 15723.

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