La caccia dell' arcobugio ...: con la prattica del tirare in volo, in aere, & à borita ; con il modo di ammaestrar bracchi, e curarli da molte malattie ; di conoscer la diversità de gli uccellanti, ove figliano, come covano, quante ova fanno, il tempo che stanno, e quando partono ; e

Bologna and Bassano: Giovanni Antonio Remondini, [1672]. Good. 12mo (15 cm); 96 pages, signed A-D\12. Four full woodcut illustrations, two woodcut tail-pieces. Date from dedication letter. In contemporary vellum over boards, worn, with small cross-shaped laceration on upper board and small abrasion on spine. Utility paper stock has toned, and first and last leaves are not without stains. References: Michel, II, p. 274, #5; Carnelos, "I libri da risma," #56; "Remondini: un editore del settecento" p.307, # 7;BL Italian 17th century, p. 128 (1678 ed.).

Venetian laws prevented provincial publishers like Remondini to print important books or first editions. Despite the restriction, the house of Remondini made a fortune from "libri da risma," popular reading printed on cheap paper and distributed to booksellers in sheets. Such is this little manual on hunting with an arquebus (a sort of match-lock firearm). Apart from extensive instruction on the care and usage of the gun, the volume also includes chapters on the behavior of geese, swans, and land birds, on training dogs for hunting, and on manufacturing pellets in the kitchen. Interestingly, the laudatory verses preceding the text include a long invective in quatrains against the invention of gunpowder!