![BENEDETTI, Alessandro (c. 1450-1512). Diaria de bello Carolino. [Venice: Aldus Manutius, after 27 Aug. 1496].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_10455_0054_000(benedetti_alessandro_diaria_de_bello_carolino_venice_aldus_manutius_af060522).jpg?w=1)
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BENEDETTI, Alessandro (c. 1450-1512). Diaria de bello Carolino. [Venice: Aldus Manutius, after 27 Aug. 1496].
Super-chancery 4° (204 x 148mm). Collation: a-h8 i4 (a1r title, a1v-2r two Latin poems by Quintius Haemilianus, a2v-3v author's dedication to Agostino Barbarigo, doge 1486-1501, a4r summary of bk. I, a4v-e4v bk. I De Tarrensi pugna, e4v-5r summary of bk. II, e5v-i3r bk. II De obsidione urbis Novariae, i3v-4r Benedetti's letter to Venetian senators Sebastiano Badoer and Girolamo Bernardo, i4r privilege granted by the Senate, i4v blank). 68 leaves. Type 2:114R. 25 lines. (Occasional light marginal spotting.) 19th-century red straight-grained morocco, gilt Aldus device on sides, gilt spine, light brown morocco doublures gilt, gilt edges, possibly by Charles Lewis (extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: George John, second Earl Spencer (1758-1834); Manchester, John Rylands University Library (1894 bookplate, title stamp; sold Sotheby's, 14 April 1988, lot 14) — Livio Ambrogio (bookplate).
FIRST EDITION. Somewhat unusually for early Aldine publications, Aldus seems to have acted merely as printer of this patriotic text. His name is entirely absent, and it was to the author that a privilege had been made out, on 26 June 1496. 'Benedetti was a fashionable Venetian doctor who had served with the army during the campaign against the French in 1495, and now sought literary fame by producing a personal account which he peppered liberally with compliments to influential noblemen. He bore the costs of the edition, and Aldus did not add his own name. But correspondence reveals that Benedetti was a close friend of Giorgio Valla, the public lecturer through whose good offices Aldus made his own entrance into Venetian high society. It was worth obliging such a man. In odd contrast to the coherently planned Greek editions, these Latin texts should serve to remind us that Aldus had his supporters, as well as his ideals to satisfy' (Lowry p. 117). H *805; GW 863; BMC V, 555; IGI 1460; Klebs 173.1; Ahmanson-Murphy 9; Laurenziana 10; Sansoviniana 10; Scapecchi 13; In Praise p. 45; Renouard Alde, 260:9 ('sa conformité avec P. Bembi Aetna, de 1495, in-4°, prouve qu'il est de même sorti de l'Imprimerie d'Alde. Il n'est ni moins rare ni moins beau que l'Aetna'); Goff A-389.
Super-chancery 4° (204 x 148mm). Collation: a-h8 i4 (a1r title, a1v-2r two Latin poems by Quintius Haemilianus, a2v-3v author's dedication to Agostino Barbarigo, doge 1486-1501, a4r summary of bk. I, a4v-e4v bk. I De Tarrensi pugna, e4v-5r summary of bk. II, e5v-i3r bk. II De obsidione urbis Novariae, i3v-4r Benedetti's letter to Venetian senators Sebastiano Badoer and Girolamo Bernardo, i4r privilege granted by the Senate, i4v blank). 68 leaves. Type 2:114R. 25 lines. (Occasional light marginal spotting.) 19th-century red straight-grained morocco, gilt Aldus device on sides, gilt spine, light brown morocco doublures gilt, gilt edges, possibly by Charles Lewis (extremities lightly rubbed). Provenance: George John, second Earl Spencer (1758-1834); Manchester, John Rylands University Library (1894 bookplate, title stamp; sold Sotheby's, 14 April 1988, lot 14) — Livio Ambrogio (bookplate).
FIRST EDITION. Somewhat unusually for early Aldine publications, Aldus seems to have acted merely as printer of this patriotic text. His name is entirely absent, and it was to the author that a privilege had been made out, on 26 June 1496. 'Benedetti was a fashionable Venetian doctor who had served with the army during the campaign against the French in 1495, and now sought literary fame by producing a personal account which he peppered liberally with compliments to influential noblemen. He bore the costs of the edition, and Aldus did not add his own name. But correspondence reveals that Benedetti was a close friend of Giorgio Valla, the public lecturer through whose good offices Aldus made his own entrance into Venetian high society. It was worth obliging such a man. In odd contrast to the coherently planned Greek editions, these Latin texts should serve to remind us that Aldus had his supporters, as well as his ideals to satisfy' (Lowry p. 117). H *805; GW 863; BMC V, 555; IGI 1460; Klebs 173.1; Ahmanson-Murphy 9; Laurenziana 10; Sansoviniana 10; Scapecchi 13; In Praise p. 45; Renouard Alde, 260:9 ('sa conformité avec P. Bembi Aetna, de 1495, in-4°, prouve qu'il est de même sorti de l'Imprimerie d'Alde. Il n'est ni moins rare ni moins beau que l'Aetna'); Goff A-389.
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