CORNAZANO, Antonio

by Antonio Cornazano

£10,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

A distinctive, naif and unusual binding probably produced near Ortona, Abruzzo, around the time the book was printed. This is appears to be one of very few copies still in a contemporary binding. The binding tools are crude and the style simple when compared with the work of the great binding centres but it is rare to find such a charming, unsophisticated example of such provincial work. An excellent copy of the second Soncino edition of this important work on the art of war, quoted by Machiavelli. Less common than the first Pesaro edition of 1507 (Manzoni). This is one of only six works produced by the Jewish printer Gershom Soncino (d. c.1537) in Ortona, then governed by the Spanish viceroys, and one of the few in the vernacular. The dedication to Count Luigi del Montorio requested protection to settle his press in Naples. Jews were banned from the territories of the Kingdom of Naples Most probably, Gershom was granted leave to settle in Ortona for his professional printing skill and given his acquaintance with important Roman personalities (Campanini, 44). Antonio Cornazano (1430-c.1483) was a prolific author on subjects as varied as dance and proverbs. In blank verse c.1476, De re militaria was first published in 1493. Soncino s typographical layout reprised the cursive octavo of the Aldine enchiridion ; rated as a sophisticated edition, it was also more expensive than its similar counterparts (Nuovo, 70). Cornazano was the first to adapt in print Vegetius s 4th-century D

• Binding: Hardcover

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