ANDRES, Juan.

£550 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Catalogo de' codici manoscritti della famiglia Capilupi di Mantova. First and sole edition of this important and detailed catalogue of manuscripts from the collections of the Capilupi family of Mantua, one of the most erudite works of Juan Andrés. It has proved invaluable in facilitating the identification of numerous volumes which were lost in the 20th century after part of the collection was dispersed by members of the family.This work is scarce in commerce; we traced only one copy at auction, that being over 10 years ago.Andrés produced this catalogue while he was in Mantua, working at the court of the marquises Bianchi. The collection of the Capilupi library was started at the end of the 15th century by Benedetto Capilupi and numbered 129 volumes in Andrés's time. Seventy-three of them are now in the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Rome, some are still in the state archive of Mantua, others are in the British Library and in the Pierpont Morgan Library, and several are still to be found and identified.A Spanish Jesuit priest who spent most of his life in Italy, Andrés was a pioneer of comparative literature, chiefly known for his monumental Dell'origine, progressi e stato attuale d'ogni letterature ("Of the origin, progress, and current state of each literature", 1782-99). He was also a leading exponent of the Spanish Universalist School in the age of the Enlightenment.

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