Francesco Alunno - La fabrica del mondo di M. Francesco Alunno da Ferrara. Nella quale si contengono le voci di Dante, - 1557

Nineteenth-century Havana-coloured leather and spotted paper binding; spine with upper label with author and title, lower label with date printed in gold. Title page with title and elaborate woodcut author’s portrait, handwritten owner’s notes from various periods; 10 unnumbered pages of dedications; 52 unnumbered pages of indexes; 237 numbered sheets for the text; on the back of the last sheet, beautiful and large typographic brand; numerous illustrated drop caps of various sizes. The volume is an edition of a work first printed in Venice in 1546 and destined to considerable success during the sixteenth century. The text is an interesting example of methodical vocabulary: each of the ten books that compose it lists the words concerning one of the "ten solid dieci salde colonne" placed at the foundation of the world (which is in turn defined as "ricco edificio" or "fabrica"). These columns are: "Dio, Cielo, Mondo, Elementi, Anima, Corpo, Huomo, Qualità, Quantità & Inferno". The words are taken from what in the sixteenth century were considered the "good authors" of the vernacular, and especially from Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and Bembo: thanks to these writers it is in fact possible (as stated in the title page) "esprimere con facilità & eloquenza tutti i concetti dell'huomo di qualunque cosa creata". The text is preceded by broad indexes of the entries contained in the vocabulary and the names of the people and places mentioned in it. In fair condition; the title page and the following sheet are trimmed without loss of text of a couple of centimetres at the bottom edge compared to the other sheets; sheets 165 and 166 with traces of dirt, small woodworm hole at the foot of the spine.