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John Howell for Books

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Galleria Dantesca Microscopica

Galleria Dantesca Microscopica

Miniature Book. 2 1/8 x 1 5/8 inches. Unpaginated. [84] pp. Half-title, title page printed in red and black inks, 30 original photographic images mounted on plates with tissue guards, decorative initials, tailpieces, index; text unmarked, title page repaired with cellophane tape with corresponding toning, pages toned, some leaves with small marginal chips, text and tissue guard torn at images 15 and 16, ms. notation on half-title. Full tan morocco, elaborately gilt, raised bands, tan leather spine label titled in blind, red leather on-lays within a medallion in the center panel of both the front and rear cover, all edges gilt, gilt green patterned end-papers, turn-ins gilt; binding square and tight, spine and rear cover with some toning. SA1019-030. SCARCE. Very Good. THE FIRST MINIATURE BOOK TO CONTAIN PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGES. This work was issued as a companion volume to Ulrico Hoepli's La Divina Commedia (Milan, 1878, known affectionately as the Dantino). "It contains thirty original photographs in black-and-white of the paintings by Scaramuzza [which] represent the earliest use of photography in a miniature book." Bromer and Edison. Of the Galleria Dantesca Microscopica, Bondy writes, "the few copies we have been able to see were bound in publisher's citron morocco with finely gilt-tooled covers, and an ornamental centre design on oval maroon leather onlays, raised bands, gilt edges, inside dentelle and endpapers decorated in silver and gold." Bondy. The photographs are of the paintings of Francesco Scaramuzza's (1803-1886) graphic depictions of Dante's Divine Comedy. Scaramuzza was an Italian painter and poet of the Romantic period in Northern Italy. He painted mythologic and historic canvases, but is best known for his interpretations of literary subjects including Dante, an enterprise to which he dedicated decades. Scaramuzza was trained at the Academy of Fine Arts of Parma where he was a professor from 1860-1877. See: Wikipedia. REFERENCES: Bondy, Miniature Books, p. 95; Bromer & Edison, Miniature Books, pp. 47-9; Welsh, A Bibliography of Miniature Books, No. 2178.
  • $750
Cupid & Psyches: The Most Pleasant & Delectable Tale of Their Marriage. Engravings by Lettice Sandford

Cupid & Psyches: The Most Pleasant & Delectable Tale of Their Marriage. Engravings by Lettice Sandford

Apuleius (124-170 CE). William Adlington (fl. 1566) translator Small 8vo. 7 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches. (48) pp. Colophon, engraved frontispiece, title page with cockerel vignette in black, 2 wood engravings in the text; text unmarked, water-staining in lower margin at pages 26-44. Cream cloth spine, patterned paper over boards, spine titled in gilt; binding square and tight, light shelf wear and soiling to spine. GIL921-021. SCARCE. Very Good. LIMITED EDITION of 150 copies, this is number 123. The text in this volume comes from the Golden Asse of Apuleius, translated by William Adlington (London, In Fleetstreate, at the sign of the Olipante, by Henry VVykes, 1566). Lucious Apuleius Madaurensis (circa 124 to circa 170 CE) was a Numidian Latin-language prose writer, Platonist philosopher, and rhetorician. His most famous work is his bawdy picaresque novel, the Metamorphoses, otherwise knows as The Golden Ass. It is the only Latin novel that has survived in its entirety. It relates the ludicrous adventures of one Lucius, who experiments with magic and is accidentally turned into a donkey. Lucius goes through various adventures before he is turned back into a human being by the goddess Isis. Within this frame story are found many digressions, the longest among them being the well-known tale of Cupid and Psyche. This story is a rare instance of a fairy tale preserved in an ancient literary text. The Golden Cockerel Press was an English fine press operating between 1920 and 1961, during which time a number of proprietors operated the press. The Golden Cockerel Press was founded by Harold (Hal) Midgley Taylor (1893-1925) in 1920. The third ownership partnership was formed in 1933 when the press was taken over by Christopher Sandford (1902-1983), Owen Rutter, and Francis J. Newbery. Around this time the Golden Cockerel Press ceased to be a private press and became a publishing house. Sandford worked long hours on management, editing and design. Rutter solicited new books and edited some of them. Newbery's role as the printer was to oversee the production work at the Chiswick Press. The illustrator of this volume was Lettice Sandford (1902-1993), Christopher Sandford's wife. She was a draftswoman, wood-engraver, pioneer corn dolly revivalist, and watercolorist, as well as the mother of playwright Jeremy Sanford. She provided wood engravings for many Golden Cockerel titles. See Wikipedia for the information in this paragraph. Worldcat records 26 copies.
  • $250