Collections: Special Topics and Strengths
Important areas within Special Collection, with information on library resources and other research resources.
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Special Collections
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Important Early Editions of Italian Plays
- Terence. [Plays]. Strasburg, 1496.Perhaps the earliest woodcut illustration of a theater, on the title page. The scene shows a Gothic theater with 2 raiseD-levels of boxes and spectators (realistically) not all paying attention to the stage. Each individual play in the volume is preceded by a full-page woodcut illustration of the cast
- Plautus, Titus Maccius. Comoediae. Venice, 1511.Leaf 11 shows a Renaissance theater (contrast this to the Gothic theater in the Terence). Same woodcut composition as the Terence: use of multiple blocks to make up a scene, and repetition of the same figure as different characters
- Ludovico DolceMany 16th century editions of his plays and other writings
- Manuscript miscellany book of playsOn paper written in ink, a fair copy Italian verse plays: 4 unpublished religious plays, a sacra rappresentazione and three spiritual comedies; and 4 "capitoli," or long poems in terza rima. Rubricated and written in the same hand. Tuscan, probably Florentine.
- Calandra. by Bernardo da Bibbiena DoviziFlorence, 1558
- Comedie di M. Lodovico AriostoVenice, 1562
- L'Asino d'oro, Mandragola, Clitia. Nicolo MacchiavelliRoma (actually London), 1588
- Qvattro comedie del divino Pietro AretinoIl marescalco. - La cortigiana. - La talanta. - L'hipocrito. London, 1588
- L’Adamo: sacra rapresentatione. Giovanni Battista AndreiniMilan, 1617. Engravings throughout the text, all set on a stage, depicting numerous scenes and actors. Limp vellum binding, printed marginalia, catchwords and signatures throughout.
- Lettere della signora Isabella Andreini PadovanaA collection of improvised dialogs (contrasti) of Isabella's Inamorati characters, gathered by her husband. (posthumous, 1617).
- Il favore de gli Dei: drama fantastico musicaleParma, 1690. Ferdinando Galli da Bibiena and Domenico Mauro designed the scenography, Federico Crivelli invented the choreography, and Gasparo Torelli created the costumes.
- Commedie scelte. Carlo GoldoniVenice, 1757. 6 volumes
- La Pupilla. Carlo GoldoniVenice[?], 1761. Original paper wrappers, nice example of original state of a printed play.
- Opere. Carlo GozziVenice, 1772-4. 8 volumes
Works on the Theater
- De Architectura. VitruviusVitruvius was a Roman author of a treatise in 10 books on architecture. Book V deals with theater construction. This work had great influence on the Renaissance theater construction. A new generation of theater designers used Vitruvius’ ideas on the proportions and acoustic properties of late-Greek and Roman theaters.
- Tutte l’opere d’architettura et prospectiva di Sebastiano SerlioTreatise on architecture (8 books, 1537–75). Intended as an illustrated handbook for architects, the volumes, separately printed but bound together here, were highly influential in France, the Netherlands, and England as a conveyor of the Italian Renaissance style. Book Two, on Perspective, describes and illustrates the 3 archetypal stage sets: tragic, comic, pastoral. Their symmetrical arrangement of houses and trees in perspective on either side of a central avenue had an immense influence on scenic design everywhere. Serlio was also a pioneer of stage lighting, one section of his book dealing with the general illumination of the stage and theater.
- Idea di un teatro, nelle principali sue Parti simile è teatri antichi all’uso moderno accomadato. Enea Arnaldi18th century debates on theater architecture. With 6 large folding plates depicting the plan of Arnaldi’s ideal theater, a semi-circular theater. Arnaldi makes reference to Palladio’s Teatro Olimpico.
- Discorsi poetici nella Accademia Fiorentina in difesa d’AristotileFlorence, 1597. 8 discourses written in defense of Aristotle against the opposition of Lodovico Castelvetro.
- Comoedio-crisis theatri contra theatrum censuraA short provocative essay, written by Father Girolamo Fiorentini and re-printed during the 1675 Holy Year. The essay, dedicated to Cardinal Odescalchi, soon to be Pope Innocence XI, illustrated the sin of attending theatrical performances. Engraved frontispiece depicting a stage and actors.
- Del Teatro. Francesco MilitiziaSecond edition of an important illustrated work on the history of the theater and its architecture. The first edition of 1771 was entirely suppressed by Papal censors due to its political ideas. Milizia’s name did not appear in the book until the 3rd edition of 1794. Milizia rejected most traditional concepts of theater architecture and also attacked the theater as being immoral. There are chapters on tragedy, comedy, and pastoral; on the place of music in drama, with sections on the aria, the recitative, etc.; a long discussion of dance and ballet; a chapter on stage design; a survey of the theaters of modern Europe, naming and describing them; and finally his "Idea D' Un Teatro Nuovo" a project for a new, ideal theater by Vincenzo Ferrarese, a theater 'all antica', with a circular, domed auditorium which would remedy the moral and architectural defects he has discussed.
- Balli di sfessania. Jacques CallotA book of illustrations of Commedia dell’arte figures. Callot was a graphic artist, draftsman and printmaker of the Baroque period from the Duchy of Lorraine. He made etchings that chronicled the people and the life of his period (besides actors: soldiers, clowns, drunkards, wanderers, beggars, and various outcasts).
- The memoirs of Count Carlo GozziGozzi defended the traditional Italian commedia dell'arte form against the dramatic innovations of Pietro Chiari and Goldoni. To show the potential of the old forms and to ridicule Goldoni, his adversary, he conceived the idea of dramatizing the tales of Basile's Pentamerone. Thus he founded the fable play, or Fiabe, (literally, “fairy tales”), based on puppet plays, Oriental stories, popular fables, fairy stories, and the works of such Spanish dramatists as Tirso de Molina, Pedro Calderón de la Barca, and Miguel de Cervantes.
- Books on the Commedia dell'arteIn the general collections and Special Collections
Italian Printed and Theater Ephemera
- Il Pertinace tragedia ... Recitata da Signori del Collegio Ducale de Nobili di Parma, nel Carnevale del 1714.1714. A very rare Italian programma di sala describing the performance of Perrasio’s tragedy Il Pertinace staged in Parma during the Carnival of 1714. The play was based on the life of Pertinax (Roman emperor for just three months in AD193, before his murder) and the programme includes a plot precis, descriptions of each ofthe acts and scenes, of the customary balli ed intermezzi and a cast list, most of whom were nobles from Venice, Milan, Cremona and Vicenza. (Orieno Perrasio was the name used by Alfonso Cavazzi, a classical playwright much under the influence of Racine, as a member of the Academia degli Arcadi in Rome.)
- Argomento e scenario della Dantea Regina D’Ungheria o sia le industrie opposte alle finezze. Agostino MorettoA very rare Italian programma di sala (1714) describing the performance of Moreto’s comedy Dantea ... Le industrie opposte alle finezze (original Spanish title: Industrias contra finezza). The comedy was staged in Parma during the Carnival of 1714 and the programme includes a plot precis, descriptions of each of the acts and scenes, of the customary balli ed intermezzi and a cast list, most of whom were nobles from Venice, Milan, Cremona and Vicenza. (The plays of Spanish dramatist Agostino Moreto (Madrid 1618 - Toledo 1669) attained considerable popularity in Italy).
Very rare. Only other copy in the Folger Library.
Announcements for 18th century Italian books. Rare ephemera that shows early Italian printing.
- Prospetto d’un’opera. De’ Progressi e dello stato attuale d’ogni letteratura. 1782.Announcing a work by Giovanni Andres
- Catalogus operum editorum ab Angelo Maria BandinioCatalogue of the works of Bandini, an important scholar and librarian of both the Biblioteca Marucelliana and the Laurenziana..
- Del Monastero di S. Pietro di Pontignano nel territorio senese posseduto per lo avanti dai certosini, ed gra dagli eremiti camaldolensi. 1789Lettera odeporica del canonico Angiolo Maria Bandini Regio Preffetto delle RR. Biblioteche Laurenziana, e Marucelliana al Reverendissimo Padre D. Alessandro Fieri Fierli da Cortona.
- Viaggi alle due Sicilie, e in alcune parti dell'Appennino1792, announcing a new book by Don Lazzaro Spallanzani.
- A gli amatori della letteratura italiana1771, announcing the 1st volume of a history of Italian literature, by Girolamo Tiraboschi.
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Parte presa nell’illustris... Conseglio de Pregadi. In materia del Lotto del Ponte di Rialto. Adi. 2 Mazo 1590. [Venice]: In calle delle Rasse, 1590.A RARE VENETIAN DECREE CONCERNING THE ‘LOTTO DEL PONTE DI RIALTO’, the lottery organized to raise funds for the rebuilding of the famous Rialto bridge the following year. The prize was worth 100,000 ducats, given in the form of a lot or ‘lotto’ of real estate, with 5 house and 7 shops. |
Artifacts of Book Production in Special Collections
- Artifact CollectionCall Number: MS 479A teaching collection of artifacts of early printing: leaves from incunables and other early printed books, type, composing sticks, printing "furniture". Also includes manuscript artifacts: leaves of medieval manuscripts, an entire sheep skin prepared as parchment, sheets of papyrus, woodblocks, engraving plates, lithograph stones, and more. Inventory available on request.
Late Carolingian vellum manuscript leaf from a HomiliaryCall Number: MSB 85In Latin, later used as a book binding (Italy, Tuscany, ca. 1125)- Bible leaf: Ecclesiastes. Paris, 1250. (small format “Paris Bible”)Call Number: Part of the Artifact CollectionBibles that appeared c. 1230, arranged in an identical order, resembling modern Bibles; with a nearly standard set of 64 prologues. Generally of a small format, a single volume, and possibly made for use in classrooms and for preaching. Small, thin parchment leaf, with some rubrication, many abbreviations.
- Leaf of a large glossed Bible (2). With Glossa ordinaria: by the German Walafrid StraboCall Number: Part of the Artifact CollectionThis gloss is quoted as a high authority by St. Thomas Aquinas, Until the seventeenth century it remained the favorite commentary on the Bible; and it was only gradually superseded by more independent works of exegesis.
Showing many phases of manuscript production: pricking, ruling, different scripts, marginal and interlinear glosses, rubrication. - Scrap of a Petrarch manuscript: Trionfo della morte, in Italian verseItaly, late 14th century. Manuscript on vellum. From a manuscript close to Petrarch’s lifetime.
- Early vellum manuscript bifolium with neumes, from a missal in Latin manuscript: ca. 1350Double column manuscript on vellum, with 31 lines in an early gothic hand. Large and small initials painted in red, considerable music on five-line staves. Each of the two leaves with prickings at the inner margin flanking the central fold.
- Ars minor. Donatus. A fragment of a Donatus grammarFrom the binding of a later book, probably printed by Gutenberg, around 1455.
- A Leaf from the Gutenberg BibleOtherwise known as "the 42-line Bible", Gutenberg's creation is considered the first printed book, and a monument of intellectual history.
- Artifact CollectionCall Number: MS 479A teaching collection of artifacts of early printing: leaves from incunables and other early printed books, type, composing sticks, printing "furniture". Also includes manuscript artifacts: leaves of medieval manuscripts, an entire sheep skin prepared as parchment, sheets of papyrus, woodblocks, engraving plates, lithograph stones, and more. Inventory available on request.
Type MoldA hand-crafted recreation, by the type founder Stan Nelson, of a type mold like those in use in Gutenberg's time. Fully operational. Included in the Artifact Collection- Prima elementa historiæ urbis Augustæ Vindelicorum1763. Uncut printed OCTAVO sheets, with an engraved map. Shows how a book looked before it was bound between covers, as it came off the printing press.
- Ordonnance concernant la censure & police des livres du 23 décembre 1768Uncut printed sheet in FOLIO. Handmade laid paper, showing deckle edge, watermark (no countermark), and vatman’s tears.
- Actus Interni virtutum ad beatissimam Virginem Mariam (1691).Uncut printed sheets in DUODECIMO.
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili by Venice : Aldus Manutius, Romanus, Dec. 1499. Called "the most beautiful book ever printed", this is Aldus Manutius' masterpiece of Renaissance printing. With spectacular page layouts and woodblock illustrations.
- Liber de macrocosmo. Book of Cosmology. byIlluminated manuscript on parchment. Italy, late 14th cent. Ornamented with seven illuminated initials with extended marginal ornaments and broad floreated borders, including a large one at beginning of the text enclosing a portrait of the author.
Book of HoursBeautifully illuminated manuscript on parchment. Latin manuscript of the 15th century (?). Vellum; lines made with red ink.16 colored initials.Text written in black and red ink.11 pages with marginal ornaments.4 full pages illuminated.- Woodblock, made from pear wood. Of a Chameleon Plant.Original pear wood block of a Chameleon Plant, used to illustrate Pietro Andrea Mattioli’s celebrated 1562 herbal. In the Artifact Collection. Printed books into the 17th century were most frequently illustrated with woodblocks. An early, less costly illustration technology, as the block could be set with the type.
- Hypnerotomachia Poliphili byVenice : Aldus Manutius, Romanus, Dec. 1499. Called "the most beautiful book ever printed". Exquisite woodblock illustrations help make this is a masterpiece of Renaissance printing.
- Woodblock used for book illustration: abbot blessing a boyAnother early woodblock (17th century) that shows how books were illustrated.
- 18th c. copperplate, engraved on both sidesFrance. 2 illustrations: Reliquary of St. Martha and the Holy Family. Copper plates (engravings) were widely used in the 18th century for book illustration. A more expensive process than woodblocks.
- 17th century copperplatesCornelius Galle, engraver. 4 plates with portraits of S. Bonaventura; S. Carolus Borromaeus; S. Petrus de Alcantara; B. Paschalis
- Wood engraving block: scene from Charles DickensWood engravings were widely used in the 19th century for book illustration. Smaller, finer in composition and detail than woodblocks.
- Lithographic Printing StonesSpecial Collections has at least 3 lithographic stones - the 19th century's revolution in printing images and text. Inquire in Special Collections
Chromolithography: 19th century illustration of booksThis book shows the step-by-step coloring process on many different lithographic stones.- The art of chromolithography : popularly explained and illustrated by forty-four plates showing separate impressions of all the stones employed...Another book showing 24 different plates; one for each color of the lithographic printing process