Capaccio - Delle Imprese - 1592

Capaccio Giulio Cesare

About Enterprises

In Naples - 1592 -
With Giacomo Carlino & Antonio Pace for Orazio Salviani

(32), 84, 148, 60 c.
Sign. [paraph]4 ag4 AX4; AA-OOO4; AAA-PPPP4.

In 40 - 20.5 x 15 cm.


First edition of the most interesting treatise on emblematics, accompanied by over 300 small plates.
Carved in wood with great tact, and the illustrations cover the subject matter with order and clarity.
CICOGNARA 1871
BRUNET I, 1557
PRAZ II, 35
MORTIMER 101

The secret of power and virtue.
The art of enterprises as an occult language

The opera, dedicated to the literary scholar Giovan Battista Crispo, is divided into three parts, with three frontispieces, each at the beginning of each part.

In the first part, it's about how to do it.
the enterprise.
Capaccio examines in detail the various theories of emblematics, the differences between symbols and emblems, emphasizing (as Mortimer notes) the fact that the essence of the enterprise is an intellectual concept.
The author also discusses the interpretation of hieroglyphics and the meaning of colors.
The second part, dedicated to hieroglyphics, analyses heroic and moral virtues, while the third part deals with “the representation of emblems of many natural things”, opening up to cosmological and theological interpretation, where symbols become an instrument of universal knowledge.

“The woodcuts are very delicate and fascinating.
The text appears to be the first emblematic piece to deal with flora and fauna, published three years before Camerarius' books”.
Landwehr Romanic 203.

Capaccio (1552/1634) was an Italian man of letters with important public offices in Naples and tutor to the Duke of Urbino.

Particular, fascinating modern binding in full rigid parchment, with cardboard applied to the covers, bearing a coat of arms on the front cover.
Nice manuscript style on the spine..
With elegant padded storage box inside.
Perfect conditions.

The interior is also in excellent condition, with very fresh and clean paper.
No defects to report, except for a very small paper integration near the lower external corner, on the first title page, where there are ancient handwritten exlibris.
Woodcut typographic mark on each of the three title pages,
Numerous decorative woodcut initials, as well as headpieces and tailpieces.
Over 300 woodcut illustrations.
Woodcut typographic mark on the last card.
(PPP P4v).
Modern guards
Silver-colored silk bookmark.

Excellent copy.
Settled. Complete.