Bembo, Pietro. Gli Asolani di messer Pietro Bembo. (Venice: in the house of Aldo Manuzio & A𒁏ndrea Torresano, May 1515)

A small format reprint of the 1505 Aldine edition, including the preface to Lucrezia Borgia. This is one o♊f three editions printed in 1515, the first by Alessandro Paganini in Venice in April, in his miniature 24mo format, and the last by Filippo Giunta in Florence in November, an octavo in italics. The original ten-year privilege had run out in March.

8vo (155 x 94 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: a-p⁸ q¹⁰: 130 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso (otherwise blank). (Small ink stain at head of q💃uire g, occasional light foxing.)

binding: Red mꩲorocco gilt by Storr of Grantham (162 x 101 mm), with his ticket, 🏅Aldine device stamped in gilt on covers, spine gilt in compartments, gilt edges

provenance: Sir John Hayford Thorold, Syston Park bookplate, sale, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 12-19 December 1884, lot 256, £2-5s, to Bernard Quaritch — Lewis Einstein (1877-1967), booklabel (some of his books were sold by Anderson Galleries, New York, 15-16 December 1910, but this book not found in the catalogue). acquisition: Purchased from H.D. Lyon, London, 1973. references: UCLA 134; Cataldi P꧒alau 5; Edit16 4988; R🌊enouard 72/5