Delle allusioni, imprese, et emblemi sopra la vita, opere, et attioni di Gregorio. XIII. pontefice massimo libri vi. Rome, Bartolomeo Grassi, 1588

£12,000 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

First and only edition of this extraordinary work written in praise of Pope Gregory XIII (1502-1585) by the priest and poet Principio Fabricio or Fabrizi (1546-1618), the theme being interpretations of the dragon emblem, illustrated with inventive zest, imagination and detail. The ambitious underlying scheme is matched by the bizarre imagination of the details; the whole is kept together (almost) by an abundance of scholarly notes. Pope Gregory XIII’s device was the Buoncompagni dragon and this dragon figures in the 231 emblems in a multiplicity of shapes and sizes, its scale in proportion to the human figures ranging from fox terrier to elephant. The subjects are drawn from the Bible, classical mythology, other collections of emblems and events and places from the Pope’s reign including specific buildings in Rome and from his birthplace, Bologna. Each emblem is accompanied by a sonnet in Italian and numerous annotations. The work is divided into six books the contents of which are laid out in a Somma dell’opera . The author explains the work in a long letter (pp. 361-397) addressed to the Pope’s son, Giacomo Buoncompagni. In it he discusses his sources, intentions and symbols and goes into a detailed exposition of the respective qualities of Allusions, Devices and Emblems. He ends by giving details of the problems involved in the getting the book through the press such as the slowness of the engravers; the resulting delays explain why the work ended up as a posthumous tribut

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