AA. VV. - Officium Beatae Virginis - 1545

RARE ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF HOURS: SPLENDID WOODCUTS FINELY ACQUERELLED
Rare Venetian Book of Hours from the mid-16th century, coming from the famous printing workshop of Francesco Marcolini, one of the most refined printers active in Renaissance Venice.
The volume is printed in elegant red and black Gothic type on a 22-line page and is richly illustrated with a vast woodcut apparatus consisting of full-page plates, decorated initials, and ornamental borders.
The book presents 21 full-page woodcuts, finely aquarelle’d by a later hand, accompanied by woodcut initials and refined phytomorphic borders.
The level of detail of the woodcuts recalls the illustrative style used by Marcolini in the celebrated Venetian edition of Dante with the commentary of Alessandro Vellutello of 1544. The woodcuts illustrate the main episodes of the life of Christ and the Virgin, including the Crucifixion, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, the Annunciation to the shepherds, the Presentation in the Temple, the Adoration of the Magi, the Flight into Egypt, the Slaughter of the Innocents, the Dormition of the Virgin, and Pentecost. The images have been finely aquarelle’d by a later hand, further enhancing the volume’s aesthetic appearance and giving it the character of an illustrated devotional book of great appeal.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION & CONDITION
Text printed in red and black in Gothic type with decorated woodcut initials, ornamental borders, and numerous illustrations, some finely aquarelle’d by a later hand. There are 21 full-page woodcuts depicting episodes from the life of Christ and the Virgin.
Later binding in full leather, signs of wear, mute spine patch applied. Some wormholes, stains, and marginal tears restored, which do not affect the engraving.
Some pages appear to have been intentionally censored by an ancient hand that has crossed out certain sections of the text. Despite these imperfections, the volume preserves its illustrative apparatus and maintains good structural stability.
Collation: (20 of 24) + 160 of 184 leaves. Several quires are missing at the beginning and the end.
In ancient books with a multi-century history, imperfections or signs of use may be present and are not always noted in the description.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHORS
Officium Beatae Mariae Virginis.
Venice, Officina di Francesco Marcolini, 1545.
AA. VV. (traditional liturgical text of Marian devotion).

MARKET VALUE
Illustrated Books of Hours, printed in Venice in the 16th century, are generally rarer on the market than the more widespread Parisian productions from the 15th and 16th centuries. Editions from Francesco Marcolini’s workshop are particularly valued by collectors for the quality of the woodcuts and for the importance of the printer in the history of Renaissance Venetian publishing. Exemplars of Books of Hours from this period with illustrations typically range from about 4,000 to 9,000 euros, with variations depending on the completeness of the leaves, the state of preservation, and the presence of manual coloring.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Books of Hours were among the most widespread devotional books in Europe from late medieval times into the early modern era. Intended primarily for private devotion, they contained a structured sequence of prayers dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to other moments of the liturgical day. With the advent of printing, these works continued the iconographic tradition of medieval illuminated manuscripts, integrating typographic text with complex illustrative programs. The Venetian edition produced by Francesco Marcolini fully reflects the refined artistic culture of Renaissance Venice, where the integration of text, image, and decoration was a fundamental element of devotional reading.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Francesco Marcolini was one of the most innovative printers active in Venice in the first half of the 16th century. Born in Forlì, he settled in Venice in the 1530s and founded one of the most refined workshops of the Italian Renaissance. His output stood out for its typographical quality and for the use of complex illustrative apparatus, produced by engravers of high standing active in the Venetian artistic milieu. Among his most famous editions are Dante with the commentary of Alessandro Vellutello of 1544 and numerous illustrated literary, scientific, and devotional texts. The 1545 edition of Officium beatae Mariae Virginis fits fully into this period of extraordinary typographic production, characterized by the integration of text, image, and decoration. USTC records about ten copies preserved in institutional libraries, a testament to the considerable bibliographic rarity of the edition and the relative scarcity of copies available on the antiquarian market.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
USTC – Universal Short Title Catalogue, record of the edition with an inventory of about 10 institutional copies.
EDIT16 – Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico, national catalog of Italian editions of the 16th century.
SBN – Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale, collective catalog of Italian libraries.
Adams, H. M., Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe 1501–1600 in Cambridge Libraries, Cambridge University Press.
Mortimer, Ruth, Italian Sixteenth-Century Books, Harvard College Library.
Essling, Victor Masséna, Prince d’, Les Livres à Figures Vénitiens de la Fin du XVe Siècle et du Commencement du XVIe, Paris.
Sander, Max, Le Livre à Figures Italien depuis 1467 jusqu’à 1530.
Comparative reference: Dante con il commento di Alessandro Vellutello, Venezia, Francesco Marcolini, 1544.