I SEI PRIMI LIBRI DEL ENEIDE DI VERGILIO, TRADOTTI À PIÙ ILLUSTRE ET ONORATE DONNE. ET TRA Lersquo;ALTRE À LA NOBILISSIMA ET DIVINA MADONNA AURELIA TOLOMEI DE BORGHESI, A CUI ANCHO E` INDIRIZZATO TUTTO IL PRESENTE VOLUME Virgil (Virgilio,

THE FIRST SIX BOOKS OF THE AENEID OF VIRGIL, TRANSLATED TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND HONOURABLE LADIES. AND AMONG OTHERS TO THE MOST NOBLE AND DIVINE MADONNA AURELIA TOLOMEI DE BORGHESI, TO WHOM THIS ENTIRE VOLUME IS ALSO ADDRESSED NOTE: Incomplete. Missing Title page and Book 1 and leaves 17 and 23 of book 6. Normally, this scarce edition sells between $1500-2,500 when found complete. As with the 1540 edition, complete copies are scarce and mostly held by institutions. The only other copy I've seen for sale of this edition is also incomplete, as are most of the copies held by institutions, many only possessing one or two books of the original six. The publication layout, woodcuts and text are nearly identical to the 1540 first edition of this translation published in Venice by Comin da Trino & Niccolo Zoppino. PROVENANCE: From the Virgil Collection of Craig Kallendorf (1954 - 2023), who owned the largest private collection of antiquarian Virgil works (1,150 editions, not including Incunable books) in the world. Only a handful of prominent institutions like the British Library had larger collections. Eighth-nine of the books in his collection were the only known surviving copies, 71 only had one other known copy. He worked closely with Princeton University in helping to assemble, supplement and catalog its Junius Spencer Morgan Virgil collection. Craig Kallendorf was Professor of English and Classics at Texas A&M University. He was the author or editor of 27 books and more than 170 articles, book chapters, and reference work entries. Among Kallendorf's groundbreaking monographs on the Virgilian tradition, special note might be made of his Virgil and the Myth of Venice: Books and Readers in the Italian Renaissance (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), which shows how the wide reading of the Aeneid, accessed in both Latin and Italian editions, contributed to Venetian ideology and the so-called "myth of Venice." With its publication, according to reviewer Diana Robin (Renaissance Quarterly, 55.4 [2002], p. 1394), Kallendorf is to be recognized as "the leading authority on the Virgilian tradition in early modern print culture in Italy." ABOUT THE BOOK: In Italian. Published in 1544 by Per Giouanni Padouano : Ad instantia e spesa del nobile homo M. Federico Torresano d'Asola in Venice. Each book translated into Italian from Latin by a different individual: (A2) Hippolito de' Medici (A3) Bernardino Borghesi, (A4) Bartolomeo Carli Piccolomini, (A5) Aldobrando Cerretani and (A6) Alessandro Piccolomini. Rebound in modern 1/4-calf over marbled paper and gilt tooled spine bordering, lettering and compartment devices. Marbled endpapers. Blue blank flyleaves. Six parts in one volume. Octavo, 6 1/4" x 4 1/4". Foliation (in leaves): 23, 20; 19, 27, [1]; 23, [7]. 18 woodcut vignettes and separate engraved title pages for Books 2-6. CONDITION REPORT: Missing Title page, Book 1 leaves, and leaves 17 and 23 of book 6. 18/22 woodcuts and a few blanks. Endpapers and blank front and rear flyleaves replaced. Multiple pagination errors - wrong page number or missing page number. Multiple leaves of book 6 incorrectly placed within and following the index at the back. The exterior is in FINE condition. Fresh, supple, unfaded leather and unblemished marbled paper. A few areas of light dust. Square spine, very firm hinges and joints, sharp corners, and very tight pages. The interior condition - Trimmed pages. Heavily darkened book II title page and a few interior pages (suggesting the book was laid open in the sun for an extended period of time). Many signs of handling - smudges, bent corners, creasing, ink smears. About 5-6 pages with 15th-16th century marginalia, a page or two with later 18th-19th century marginalia, a few areas of text underlining. Several areas with water dampening stains. FFEP verso with ex libris sticker "from the Virgil collection of Craig W. Kallendorf".