Details
CAROSO, Fabrizio (ca.1530-ca.1605). Il ballarino. Venice: Francesco Ziletti, 1581
4° (233 x 172mm). 2 parts in one vol. Engraved portrait and 22 full-page engravings in the text (including repeats) by Giacomo Franco, numerous examples of lute tablature in the text, device on title-pages. (Small repaired hole in the blank fore-margin of the last two leaves, fore-margin of the title-page reinforced on the verso.) 19th-century vellum (upper hinge beginning to crack).
FIRST EDITION of Caroso's illustrated manual of dancing, a magnificent production illustrating the dances then in fashion in Italy, France and Spain,and one of the earliest books devoted solely to the subject. The work is divided into two parts. In the first, Caroso, a dancing master from Sermoneta, about whom very few biographical details are known, elaborates the basic rules and etiquette of dancing in a series of 55 regole. The second part describes in greater detail 76 dances, 28 by various contemporaries and the remainder by Caroso, each one with its own lute music and dedicated, together with a sonnet, to one of the most illustrious ladies of the period whose magnificent costumes are admirably portrayed in Giacomo Franco's fine engravings. This copy differs from the Hofer copy described by Mortimer in a few points. That copy contains 21 engravings from six copperplates whereas this copy has 22 from seven, with an engraving on q4v (blank in the Hofer copy); in this copy quire E is printed on 4 leaves, but in the Hofer copy it is printed on 2 sheets as 8 leaves with the versos blank. This is the second issue with Ziletti's device on the title-page and with the title reset; the first issue had the arms of the dedicatee, Bianca Cappello. Mortimer, Harvard Italian, 106; Gamba 1294; Colas 532 (erroneously calling for 24 illustrations).
4° (233 x 172mm). 2 parts in one vol. Engraved portrait and 22 full-page engravings in the text (including repeats) by Giacomo Franco, numerous examples of lute tablature in the text, device on title-pages. (Small repaired hole in the blank fore-margin of the last two leaves, fore-margin of the title-page reinforced on the verso.) 19th-century vellum (upper hinge beginning to crack).
FIRST EDITION of Caroso's illustrated manual of dancing, a magnificent production illustrating the dances then in fashion in Italy, France and Spain,and one of the earliest books devoted solely to the subject. The work is divided into two parts. In the first, Caroso, a dancing master from Sermoneta, about whom very few biographical details are known, elaborates the basic rules and etiquette of dancing in a series of 55 regole. The second part describes in greater detail 76 dances, 28 by various contemporaries and the remainder by Caroso, each one with its own lute music and dedicated, together with a sonnet, to one of the most illustrious ladies of the period whose magnificent costumes are admirably portrayed in Giacomo Franco's fine engravings. This copy differs from the Hofer copy described by Mortimer in a few points. That copy contains 21 engravings from six copperplates whereas this copy has 22 from seven, with an engraving on q4v (blank in the Hofer copy); in this copy quire E is printed on 4 leaves, but in the Hofer copy it is printed on 2 sheets as 8 leaves with the versos blank. This is the second issue with Ziletti's device on the title-page and with the title reset; the first issue had the arms of the dedicatee, Bianca Cappello. Mortimer, Harvard Italian, 106; Gamba 1294; Colas 532 (erroneously calling for 24 illustrations).