Search Results: Incunabula from Riverrun Books & Manuscripts

Venice: Manfredus de Bonellis de Monteferrato, 1492. 4to (211 x 145 mm). 70 (of 72) leaves, a2.7 supplied in facsimile. Gothic type, 40-41 lines, initial spaces with printed guide letters. 64 (of 66) woodcuts within any of five decorative historiated frames; a single woodcut initial. Modern russet morocco. Some spotting and soiling. Provenance: Giambattista Giorno (early ownership inscription); some early marginalia at end, and a few early ink outlines of animals; sold by Philip Hofer to Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow in 1967. Bonellis' first edition of Aesop's Fables, illustrated with a superb series of woodcuts that were in part based on the first Venetian series, used by Bernardinus Benalius in his 20 November 1487 edition (GW 431, only a single imperfect copy known). "The book is charmingly illustrated; the designs being redrawn and improved from those in the Venice Aesop of 1487. There is so much artistic freedom in the treatment of the cuts, that they are fully entitled to be regarded as new and… Read More