Symbolism in Siena
BOCCHI, Achille.
Symbolicarum quaestionum, de universo genere, quas serio ludebat, libri quinque. Bologna, Società Tipografica Bolognese, 1574.
4to, pp. [48], CCCLVII, [1], [2, blank]; woodcut printer’s device to title-page, woodcut initials, 151 copper-engraved emblems printed in-text; occasional light foxing with a few scattered stains, marginal paper-flaw to lower outer corner of R1, else a very good copy; bound in crushed red Jansenist morocco by Belz-Niedrée (front turn-in signed in gilt), spine lettered directly in gilt, edges marbled and gilt, marbled endpapers; joints repaired, spine and corners rubbed; early manuscript corrections to pp. XXIII, XXXV, CLVII, and CXCIIII, contemporary ownership inscription ‘Bellisarii Bulgarini Patricii Senensis et cęt.’ to final page (see below), gilt morocco booklabel of James Carson Brevoort (1818–1887) to front pastedown.
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Symbolicarum quaestionum, de universo genere, quas serio ludebat, libri quinque.
Second edition (first 1555) of this notable and richly illustrated emblem book, from the library of the Sienese patrician and poet Bellisario Bulgarini.
Achille Bocchi (1488–1562), professor at the University of Bologna, statesman and eccentric humanist, self-published his emblem book in 1555, drawing inspiration from the meetings of his philosophical academy called the Hermathena, named for the statues of Hermes and Athena that adorned his home. Many of the emblems and their poetic explanations are dedicated to members of the Academy (such as Ulisse Aldrovandi and Francesco Robortello), members of the Roman Curia (including his own father-in-law, Cardinal Carlo Grassi), and several popes. The engravings for the first edition, carefully devised by Giulio Bonasone following Bocchi’s iconographic direction, are reused here for the most part. It proved an influential work, partly for the fine engravings and partly for the rich nature of the explanations.
This volume was the first to be printed by the Società Tipografica Bolognese, founded in 1572 and headed by Carlo Sigonio. The small and neat manuscript emendations to pp. XXIII and XXXV, as specified by Mortimer, were probably executed in the print shop, while the more visible corrections to pp. CLVII and CXCIIII are more likely to be by Bulgarini.
Provenance:
1. From the library of Bellisario Bulgarini (1539–1619), Sienese poet and scholar. He amassed an extensive library of over two thousand volumes, including numerous books on imprese. He almost always noted the details about his acquisition of each item and annotated many of his books. Although his inscription here does not indicate the source of the volume, he also owned two other Società Tipografica Bolognese publications, one of which (printed in 1581) he bought in Bologna in 1594. His grandson (also Bellisario, d. 1660) compiled a catalogue of the library, along with his own later acquisitions, in the early 1630s, although this volume does not appear in that catalogue, indicating that it would have left the library at an early stage. The library seems to have remained intact in Siena until the late eighteenth century.
2. James Carson Brevoort (1818–1887), bibliophile and numismatist, private secretary to Washington Irving in Spain, Superintendent of the Astor Library, regent of New York University, and member of numerous antiquarian and historical societies.
EDIT16 CNCE 6486; USTC 815008; Landwehr, Romanic 163; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 77; Praz, p. 276. Rolet, ‘Achille Bocchi’s Symbolicae Quaestiones’ in Mundus emblematicus: studies in Neo-Latin emblem books (2003), pp. 101–130; Danesi, Cento anni di libri: la biblioteca de Bellisario Bulgarini e della sua famiglia, circa 1560–1660 (2014).