[PETRARCH] PETRARCA, FRANCESCO.

Il Petrarca, con l'espositione d'Allessandro Vellutello, di novo ristampato con le figure a i triomphi, con le apostille, et con piu cose utili aggiunte.

      Venice, Gabriel Giolito, 1544. References: Mortimer, Italian, 375; Bongi, Giolito, I, 80; Essling, I, 1, 105. , Octavo (22 cm); [8], 197, [7] leaves. Title within elaborate architectural title border with device, device on final verso. Full page woodcut map of Vaucluse; double portrait of the poet and Laura surmounted by the Giolito device; six woodcut illustrations to the Trionfi; numerous initials and ornaments. Eighteenth-century vellum, with leather label on spine. Binding tanned and rubbed at extremities. Moderate but pervasive foxing, mostly marginal, and pervasive damp marks, mostly light. Sporadic underlining and marginal notes in text in early hand, especially in the Trionfi. Early inscription on preliminary blank, together with later ownership inscriptions. Canceled inscriptions on A3 and Z6. Later owner's stamped initials in lower margin of final two leaves. Earlier and later owner's initials on title vignette. Small rupture in upper margin of title leaf, and in lower margin of final leaf. Small worm trail at fore-edge of quires E and F. ¶ First Giolito edition, and the first appearance of the remarkable woodcut title border and the cuts illustrating the Trionfi. (The title illustration was repeated on many later Giolito editions of Petrarch.) This copy complete including the "sonnets against Rome," frequently removed or scratched out of early editions of Petrarch. Although scathed by time and love, this is still a proud copy of a desirable and important book.