Vita Di Piero Soderini

Padua: Giovanni Manfrè for the Seminary Press, 1737. CONTEMPORARY ROMAN GILT CALF BY THE SALVIONI WORKSHOP, outer border of a geometric and foliage roll around a rich frame of double fillet interlaced volutes incorporating lattice work, acanthus leaves, drawer handle ornament, small blooms, acorns, dots and THE SODERINI ARMS IN THE CORNERS. Long stem flowers, stars, sphynxes, acanthus, palmettes, small blooms and dots frame the central mottled leather panel. Gilt spine (slightly rubbed, hinges worn) with a pair of tritons playing trumpets in each compartment, gilt red morocco label, gilt board edges and turn-ins, pink speckled paper endleaves, all edges gilt. Only Edition: a deluxe large-paper copy. This highly decorative historical biography includes THE SODERINI ARMS IN NEARLY EVERY ILLUSTRATION, including the engraved borders. Roman patrician Antonfrancesco Soderini (1660-1743) financed the book and commissioned Roman artists to design (G. Odam) and cut (P. Pilaja) the plates.
            An experienced politician and diplomat, Piero Soderini (1451-1522) assumed power in Florence in 1502, after the Medici's demise and Savonarola's short-lived republic. Soderini's French political sympathies earned him the hostility of the pope and his allies, who in 1512 incited a coup to reinstate the Medici. This book attempts to clear Soderini's name. To emphasize the historical reliability of Razzi's account, the printer added three lengthy appendices with correspondence and archival documents.
            In good condition. pinholes visible in nearly all outer margins, two small marginal tears and a larger one into the printed area (expertly repaired).
¶Gamba, Serie dei testi di lingua 1614; Bellini, La Storia della Tipografia del Seminario 406 (4to issue); see Quilici's Legature antiche e di pregio 1131 (spine tool) and Cavalli & Terlizzi's Legature di pregio in Angelica 42 (acorn, star & acanthus tools; attr. Salvioni) & Macchi, Dizionario illustrato della legatura 422