Opus Regale by VIVALDI, Giovanni Lodovico (d. 1540) - 1511

Paris: Jean Barbier for François Regnault, 1511. From the Collection of Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow. 4to (142 x 210 mm). Title printed in red and black, 7 metalcut illustrations and borders. Contemporary English limp blind-tooled calf, boards removed, early manuscript pastedowns preserved; cloth folding case. Back cover detached. Provenance: early manuscript annotations, extensive at beginning and end; William Morris (1834-1896), (Kelmscott House bookplate, his sale Sotheby's 5 December 1898, lot 1092, to Chadwick for £6 15s.); John Camp Williams (bookplates, his sale American Art Association, 6 November 1929, lot 1156); purchased from Thomas Taylor, 1978. Third edition. The 1507 first edition printed at Saluzzo by Giacomo de' Circhi and Sisto Somasco, and the Lyons, 1508 edition of Étienne Gueynard both employed woodcuts. In Barbier's edition for Regnault, up to one dozen small metal plates combined to form each of the large subjects and frames in the final composite images. The subjects include the Descent from the Cross, the Dance of Death, and representations of saints. Giovanni Lodovico Vivaldi, whose name appears on the verso of the title-page above Andreas de Soncino's preface, dedicates the work to the Marquess of Salluzzo, Ludovico II (1438-1504) and his second wife, Marguérite de Foix. A Dominican monk and professor of theology from Mondovi, Vivaldi moved to Lombardy to act as their adviser and confessor. His collaboration in this text with Bernardino Dardano represents a "defining link between theological and humanistic culture in print" (Vinay, L'umanesimo subalpino nel secolo XV 1935, p.107). See Harvard/Mortimer, French 552 (the Lyons edition). Renouard, Imprimeurs & Libraires Parisiens du XVIe siècle, 185.