HARD HIGH-COUNTRY POEMS [by Michelangelo]; and THE TYPOGRAPHIC LEGACY OF LUDOVICO DEGLI ARRIGHI [Two volumes] by Michelangelo; Robert Bringhurst, Joseph Goldyne, Amelia Hugill-Fontanel - 2015

[Berkeley, CA]: Peter Koch, 2015. First edition. "Michelangelo is the most celebrated of all visual artists, and one of the few who are admired in equal measure for sculpture, painting, and architecture. He was also a great poet. Some hold him to be the greatest lyric poet of his time in the Italian language...." -- from the prospectus. TWO VOLUMES. Numbers 16 of 112 numbered copies (from a total edition of 126). Both volumes printed using various types by Arrighi, who was active in the same period as Michelango and who executed a large calligraphic commission for the woman who would later become Michelangelo's closest friend, Vittoria Colonna. FIRST VOLUME: Includes translator's preface and TEN POEMS BY MICHELANGELO (each one connected to Vittoria Colonna) printed in the original Italian with English translations on opposing pages. First volume's colophon SIGNED BY ROBERT BRINGHURST (translator of the poems and author of the second volume), JOSEPH GOLDYNE (illustrator of the drypoint frontis portrait of Michelangelo, which he has initialed in pencil) and PETER KOCH (the publisher). Penciled inscription beneath the signatures in unknown hand (perhaps Bringhurst's) "This copy is for Al Mears esq!" SECOND VOLUME: Includes essay on Arrighi by Bringhurst and afterword by Koch. The publisher chose Arrighi's type because "Michelangelo and Arrighi were not far apart in age. Early in the sixteenth century, they both spent several years in Rome, both working for the Vatican, and may have known one another." -- from the prospectus. Second volume's colophon INITIALED BY KOCH. Each volume quarter-bound in custom died blue goatskin with spine titles in 22k gold and paper coverings for boards derived from photographs of standing type-metal forms used to print the poems. Housed together in plain paper-covered chemise and slipcase covered "in a reproduction of the rare Ludovico degli Arrighi type specimen sheet, Vicenza: Tolomeo Janiculo, 1529" (prospectus). ALSO INCLUDED: PROSPECTUS IN HAND-SEWN PAPERWRAPS housed in original mailing envelope from the press; and THE BOOK CLUB OF CALIFORNIA QUARTERLY, LXXXI, Number 1, January 2017, with 6-page review of the books by Juan Nicanor Pascoe. Books, chemise, slipcase, prospectus, and Quarterly all in fine condition.