‘Memory Is the Best Treasure That a Man Can Have’
VISCARDI, Giovanni Andrea.
Precetti morali e civili, con molti, & varii essempi … opera utilissima a qualunque sorte persone. Venice, Sebastiano Combi, 1600.
Vol. I (of II) only, 8vo, ff. [xxiv], 176, 175–206; woodcut ornament to title, woodcut initials and headpieces; occasional light toning, final leaf with text ‘della Prima Parte’ erased after ‘Il fine’ at foot of verso, a very good copy; bound in strictly contemporary Parisian brown morocco with central arms gilt of Jacques-Auguste de Thou and Marie Barbançon (Olivier 216, fer 5), spine gilt in compartments with their joint IAM monogram (fer 6) and two small bee stamps at head and lettered directly in gilt; caps repaired, small repairs to joints (now starting), a few tiny scuffs; manuscript shelfmark of the Rohan-Soubise library ‘1.C. T.4. L.45’ to front pastedown, tiny bookplate with the letters ‘J.G.’ numbered 142.
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Precetti morali e civili, con molti, & varii essempi … opera utilissima a qualunque sorte persone.
Second, expanded edition of Viscardi’s moral precepts and examples, in a binding for Jacques-Auguste de Thou and Marie Barbançon.
Giovanni Andrea Viscardi (1544–1599) was a jurist and author from Bergamo, in the service of the Venetian state. The first edition of his ‘moral and civil precepts’ (Bergamo, 1597) was published in a single volume; the text was greatly expanded for this second edition, issued in two, while retaining the same dedication to Doge Marino Grimani. The text is preceded by a list of the significant people mentioned in the text, descending from the Pope and Holy Roman Emperor through cardinals and dukes to nobles and doctors, with a definite Venetian slant, and including Viscardi’s own nephew Marcello Viscardi.
Provenance:
From the library of Jacques-Auguste de Thou (1553–1617), in a strictly contemporary binding with the arms of his first wife Marie Barbançon (d. 1601). His library was inherited by his son, whose financial situation resulted in his creditors issuing a sale catalogue in 1679 (Catalogus bibliothecae Thuanae; this volume appears on p. 401, with no mention of more than one volume); the collection was bought en bloc by Jean-Jacques Charron de Menars, subsequently purchased by Cardinal Armand de Rohan-Soubise, and inherited by Charles de Rohan, prince de Soubise (1715–1787). The library was sold at auction in Paris in 1789, though it seems that some de Thou volumes left the collection before the sale, including this one.
Rare: we have located only two copies in the US (Newberry, Pennsylvania) and two in the UK (York Minster, Middle Temple; BL has vol. II only).
EDIT16 CNCE 24506; USTC 863521. Not in Adams.