La Legatura Artistica in Italia nei Secoli XV e XVI. Notizie ed Elenchi

Tipped-in color frontis., about 1000 superb collotype plates (several tipped-in & in color) reproducing about 1500 bindings, & text illus. Three vols. Folio, orig. blue morocco-backed cloth, t.e.g., slipcases. Florence: Istituto di Edizioni Aristiche, 1960. Limited to 500 copies, handsomely printed at the Stamperia Valdonega. The authoritative work on 15th and 16th century Italian bookbindings and a truly sumptuous book. The result of close collaboration with the reigning experts in the field, this lavishly illustrated work contains more than 3100 meticulous descriptions of books examined in public and private libraries both in Europe and the United States. Arranged by place of origin with a prefatory essay on each city and indexes. A fine set. Breslauer, The Uses of Bookbinding Literature, pp. 21-22­"The great Italian bookseller-scholar Tammaro de Marinis covered the history of Italian bookbinding up to ca 1550 in [the present work]. In three folio volumes he lists about 3,500 bindings, grouped under the cities in which they were made (or he assumed they were), reproducing about 1,500 of them on almost a thousand plates. The work offers a wealth of material unequalled by any other publication of this nature."