Leandro Alberti - Isole appartenenti alla Italia; Descrittione di tutta Italia - 1567-1568

The Author
Leandro Alberti (Bologna, December 12, 1479 – Bologna, April 9, 1552) was a Dominican friar, historian, theologian and preacher. Entering the Order of Preachers, he became an inquisitor and the provincial of the Holy Land. He undertook long travels through Italy and France in the company of the Order’s general masters Tommaso De Vio (Cajetan) and Francesco Silvestri. It was precisely during these moves, and thanks to a wide network of erudite correspondents (including Paolo Giovio and Andrea Alciati), that he collected the material for his major work.

The Printer
The present edition (Venice, 1568) was published by Lodovico (or Ludovico) degli Avanzi, a Brescia-born printer and bookseller active in Venice between about 1556 and 1576. Avanzi, based “alle Mercerie,” produced about fifty editions and specialized in works of erudition, history and geography. His 1568 edition of Descrittione is particularly prized because it includes, for the first time in a complete form with maps, the section on the Italian islands, accompanied by seven double-page engravings (Corsica, Sardinia, islands of the Tyrrhenian Sea, islands of the Gulf of Naples, Sicily, Tremiti and Venice).

Importance and Significance of the Work
First published in Bologna in 1550 by Anselmo Giaccarelli and dedicated to Henry II of France and Catherine de’ Medici, Descrittione di tutta Italia is the most expansive and coherent historical-geographical description of the peninsula produced in the sixteenth century.
The work fits within the humanist tradition inaugurated by the Itinerarium Italiae? illustrated Italy of Flavio Biondo (mid-15th century), but surpasses it in completeness: Alberti divides Italy into nineteen regions (instead of Biondo’s eighteen) and, from the 1561 edition onward, adds a second part entirely devoted to islands.
The text blends:

- physical geography and topography,
- ancient and modern history,
- antiquarian, archaeological and economic information,
- biographies of illustrious men,
- descriptions of customs, products and natural wonders.

Although not always critical of sources (he also relies on authors who are debated, such as Annio da Viterbo), Alberti cites with greater precision than his predecessors and integrates first-hand observations derived from his travels.

Impact in the Sixteenth Century and Historical Connections
The work became a true bestseller of the 16th century: between 1550 and the end of the century it went through at least eleven Italian editions and two Latin translations published in Cologne. It was consulted by scholars, travelers and diplomats well into the late Seventeenth century and anticipated, in many respects, the guides of the Grand Tour.
Relevant historical connections:

- The dedication to Henry II and Catherine de’ Medici (daughter of Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino) reflects the political and cultural ties between France and Italy during the Valois dynasty and the return of the Medici to Florence.
- The work was born in a still politically fragmented Italy (after the Italian Wars 1494-1559) and responded to the need to give a unified image of the peninsula on a cultural and geographical level, in an era when the idea of “Italy” was mainly literary and antiquarian.
- Alberti wrote as the Counter-Reformation was taking shape: his Dominican formation and the role of inquisitor emerge in some judgments, but the work remains essentially a monument of humanistic erudition.
- The Venetian editorial fortune (Avanzi, Bonelli, Farri, Ugolino) coincides with the height of Venetian printing, which exported culture throughout Europe.

Even in the eighteenth century Ludovico Antonio Muratori recommended its reprint to Pope Benedict XIV, calling it a book worthy of the utmost esteem.

Conclusion
Descrittione di tutta Italia by Leandro Alberti represents one of the high points of Renaissance Italian chorography. By combining Flavio Biondo’s antiquarian tradition with the direct observations of a traveling preacher, Alberti built a complex and multiform portrait of the peninsula that influenced generations of scholars and travelers. The Venetian edition of 1568, printed by Lodovico degli Avanzi and enriched with the island maps, remains one of the most complete and fascinating testimonies of how, in the height of the Sixteenth Century, Italy sought to tell itself to itself and to Europe.

Collation and state of preservation:
- Descrittione di tutta Italia: 44 pp (504 pp)
- Islands belonging to Italy: 6 pp, (100 pp) 5 double-page plates out of text

The volume shows not in excellent condition: wormholes, tears in the text; the binding is damaged but, overall, a rare specimen.

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