Vincenzo Donnorso - Memorie istoriche della fedelissima ed antica Città di Sorrento - 1740

Author: Vincenzo Donnorso

Full Title: Memorie Istoriche della Città di Sorrento

Place of printing: Naples

Printer / Publisher: Domenico Roselli (as indicated in permissions/imprimatur)

Year of publication: 1740 (date on the back and on the title page; permissions dated March–April 1741)

Language: Italian (with ecclesiastical formulas and approvals in Latin)

Format: In-4° (approximately 23 x 17 cm)

Pagination: [8] unnumbered pages (Dedication, To the Kind Reader, Table of Contents/Headings, Imprimatur), 239 numbered pages, [1] p. of Table/Final Index.

Binding: Elegant modern half parchment with corners, boards covered in multicolor marbled paper (moka, green and ochre tones), spine with raised bands and title, author and year of printing handwritten in ink in an antique style.

General conditions: Good / Very good (presence of foxing and natural browning related to eighteenth-century paper, see details).

Rare and sought-after first edition of one of the foundational historical works dedicated to the Sorrento peninsula. Written by the noble Sorrentine Vincenzo Donnorso, the work retraces the history, mythical and Roman origins, political institutions, noble privileges, illustrious families, religious monuments, and the chronology of bishops and archbishops of the City of Sorrento.

The work is divided into various chapters ("Capi") and is rich in genealogical and heraldic references on the main noble houses of the Kingdom of Naples and the Campania region (including Filamarini, Mastrogiudice, Comiti, Guardato, Vulcano, and many others).

This copy preserves, on the front inner guard or facing the title page, an interesting contemporaneous handwritten ownership note ("P. F. Frater Hyacinthus Donnorso... 1742") and a stamp/emblem engraved in outline depicting a heraldic shield topped with a helmet, printed in counterproof or wood engraving.

Modern or recent half-parchment binding recreated to professional standard, very solid and well structured. Clean boards and well preserved. Very small signs of handling on the edges of the added endpapers introduced during rebound.

Spread foxing, dark spots and natural darkening due to the paper type and the natural oxidation of the ink of the period, particularly evident on the preliminary pages, the title page and the margins of some inner pages.

Contemporary handwritten ownership note in brown ink on the preliminary page, dated 1742.

Presence of shadows and ink ghosting and incisions on facing pages (visible, for example, on the verso of the title page and on the index pages).

Slight era moisture stain or blotch of foxing more pronounced along the lower and lateral margins of some pages, without ever affecting legibility of the text.

No rips with loss of text nor galleries of damaging woodworms; the book block appears well square and properly trimmed.