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 tribute.
The artist Natale Bonifacio da Sebenico (1537-1592) who was here inventor and engraver, worked first in Venice and from 1575 in Rome. He was a designer, engraver and print publisher, and is best known for his plates of Domenico Fontana’s scheme to move the Vatican obelisk, published as Della trasportatione dell’obelisco Vaticano in 1590.
Provenance: Bookplate of Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow (their sale, Christie’s New York, 20 June 2013, lot 453), they bought this copy from the doyenne of Italian antiquarian book dealing, Carlo Alberto Chiesa, in 1958.
Quires K-M misbound, short tear to lower corner of B4 with no loss, quires K-M misbound, 2 full-page engravings just shaved at fore-edge, a few wormholes at beginning and end.), but a fine and large copy with excellent impressions of the engravings.
Praz p. 331/332. Censimento Edit 16 18476. Mortimer Italian, no. 177. Rossetti 4817. Marco Ruffini, ‘A Dragon for the Pope: Politics and Emblematics at the Court of Gregory XIII’ Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome 54 (2009), pp. 83-105; M. Bury, The Print in Italy 1550-1620, p. 222.
