Lot 63
Machiavelli, Niccolo
Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts
Auction: Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts
Description
Opere. [Geneva?: Pietro Alberto?,] "1550" [but probably between 1620 and 1641]. Small 4to, woodcut portrait to title-page, contemporary vellum, rebacked, deleted signature of previous owner to titlepage, some light foxing and very slight dampstaining, a little dust-soiling to a few pages, covers a little dust-soiled and with minor bumping to corners
Footnote
Note: Collation: [4], [1-2], 3-351, [1-2], 3-168, [1-2], 3-170, [4], 116, [1-2], 3-14, [2], 304
First collected editions of Machiavelli's works, such as this, tend to feature the date 1550 on the title-page but were, in fact, published in the seventeenth century. As some later editions bear a Geneva imprint, the collections tend to be attrubuted to Switzerland. In this particular book, Machiavelli's woodcut portrait features on the main title page only, differentiating this version from that described by Gerber, etc., which list a portrait on each individual title page.