Harvard College Library Department of Printing and Graphic Arts. Catalogue of Books and Manuscripts. Part II : Italian 16th Century Books. [ 2 vols, complete set ]

Belknap Press, Harvard, first edition, 1974. 2 vols, cloth, large 4to, 29 cm,. xx,383 + [vi], 384-840 pp. 559 entries. From a contemporary review: "..here is a wealth of 559 Italian books, meticulously described, always with the emphasis on their illustrations. The style, significance, and origin of each woodcut or engraving is given in such detail that we have virtually been provided with a new history of sixteenth-century book illustration in Italy ...As Mr. Philip Hofer says in his foreword: 'Once again, the emphasis of Harvard's acquisitions has been laid upon books that contain woodcuts, or engravings, by those I have judged as superior artists, rather than upon the typography of the great printers, excepting those who, like Arrighi, were innovators. In this two-volume catalogue there are more than thirteen hundred illustrations, large and small, for five hundred fifty-nine separate entries..' ..No really great landmarks in the history of the Italian book of the Cinquecento seem to be missing from Harvard's great collections, thanks to Mr. Hofer's limitless generosity and good taste. Miss Mortimer provides a very careful account of each book and its sources in the first paragraph of her description, followed in the second by details of the Harvard copy, including provenances; a collation, and references, which show the vast range of her reading...on the whole her references are remarkably complete and wide-ranging. It is amazing what a large number of variant issues are revealed, thanks to Miss Mortimer s diligence in comparing minutely her Harvard descriptions with copies in the British Library and elsewhere. The various indexes at the end of the work comprise one long general index, including the provenances; an index of artists; an index of printers and publishers; an index of places (in which Venice as usual far outstrips all the rest) ; an index of subjects; and a chronological index. The ..work .. is at once a masterpiece of detailed observation, fine illustration, careful and painstaking cataloguing, and above all invaluable documentation in a field where bibliographical treasures appear to be inexhaustible. The press-work is impeccable, and [there is] a magnificent wealth of illustrations. Slight fading to both spines and to the top edge of the rear board of Vol. I, otherwise a Very Good set.