TAGLIENTE, Giovannantonio.

Lo presente libro insegna la vera arte delo excellente scrivere.

      - Venice, Giovanantonio de Nicolini da Sabio 1532/3 4to., ff [xxviii], A-O1, [A-O1]. Italic letter, three large woodcut initials, one white on black, most of the book comprises 33 woodcut representations of the different kinds of handwriting used in C16 Italy (including Arabic and Hebrew), 9 pages white on black, one full-page illustration of various pieces of calligraphic equipment, full-page aerial view of the siege of Rhodes on final leaf, armorial book plate of James Mitchel on fly, light even age yellowing. A very good, clean copy in C19 tan morocco by Chambolle-Duru, covers with blind ruled outer panel filled with scrollwork, spine with raised bands, double blind ruled in compartments, gilt lettered title, blind inner dentelles, a.e.g. Rare and early edition of the first popular calligraphic manual, first published in 1524, of which this edition is an almost exact reprint. It was a hugely successful, reprinted at least thirty times in the C16, and is considered the most influential early work of the genre. Its precursor, by Sigismondo Fanti, was a dry and scholarly work with modest illustrations of a geometrical nature and a great deal of text. Tagliente's approach was the opposite. "We leave the scholars study for the jostle of the market place. We catch a flavour of life as it was in Venice the commercial thrust of her citizens, the undertones of Byzantium, the Levant, and the North" A.S. Osley 'Luminario'. His book is immediately distinguished by its large, dramatic illustrations of a host of different alphabets and elaborate writing styles, bordering on the theatrical, including an Arabic alphabet, a large Hebrew alphabet, and a Chaldean alphabet 'such as the Jews used in the times of Moses'. In a cosmopolitan city like Venice this was not merely intended to show off the author's virtuosity. Although it does contain simple instruction on the principles of proportion it was not designed just for other professional scribes but the world at large. Tagliente was fascinated with every imaginable form of calligraphy - chancery, diplomatic, mercantile, bollatic, Gothic, bastard, rotunda etc. "In an application for a privilege to protect this.book he pleaded 'I have invented a new way of printing every kind of letter that can be made by the living hand: not printing in the usual way but a new method never before used in Venice or in her territory'. This 'new method'.can hardly be other than the printing of engraved plates of cursive handwriting". A.S. Osley 'Luminario'. Tagliente's concluding section, printed in the Italic he designed himself, is about the teaching of handwriting, giving five principle rules on how to cut a quill, hold a pen, move the pen, the size and shape of the letter and how to join them. Being a much used practical work, copies of any edition in good condition are scarce. An excellent copy of a splendidly printed and rare work; a major influence in the history of lettering and calligraphy. This edition not in BM STC It., Essling, Mortimer C16 It. A.S. Osley 'Luminario', chapter III. Sander III 7170. Brunet V 643. 'On recherche encore aujourd'hui cet ouvrage'. L922L922