MORELLI, Jacopo
EXCEPTIONAL COPY
Bibliotheca Maphæi Pinellii.
Venice, Carlo Palese, 1787£5,250.00
FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 6 vols., pp. (ii), liv, 377, (i); iv, 468; iv, 367, (i); lvi, 471, (i); viii, 360; xvi, 365, (i). Roman letter, some Italic. Frontispiece engraved portrait of Maffeo Pinelli by Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815), large folding plate of Latin papyrus vol.3, 5 engraved plates vol.5. A very good, clean, well-margined copy on thick paper, all edges yellow. Contemporary polished calf, ruled borders, gilt, spines gilt, original satin page markers; upper joint slightly cracked vol.1, slight chip to ends of spine vol.4, and headcap vol.5. Armorial bookplates of Wilmot Vaughan, 1st Earl of Lisburne (1730-1800, Lord of the Admiralty; his bookplate as Viscount Lisburne); John Roland Abbey (1894-1969, book collector and High Sheriff); and celebrated bibliographer Anthony Hobson. Includes appendix to vol.5 and list of Delphine editions in vol.3.
Maffeo Pinelli (1735-1785) was a translator, book collector, and director of the Doge’s press in Venice. On his death, his huge and comprehensive library, ‘une des plus belles bibliothèques de l’Europe’, was catalogued by the librarian of the Biblioteca Marciana, Jacopo Morelli (1745-1819). ‘Ce catalogue est un des meilleurs qui existent, tant par la valeur et le nombre des ouvrages curieux qui le composent, que part la manière dont il est rédigé, et par les notes savants dont l’a enrichi le célèbre M. Morelli.’ (Peignot 118). As well as an author index of Italian and Latin works which comprises vol.6, the catalogue is accompanied by lists of incunables, MSS, printed vellum works, and literature in a wide variety of languages; a twenty-seven-page appendix illustrated with five full-page engravings details some of the various antique statues and coins in Pinelli’s collection.
His library was particularly remarkable for the large number of antique papyri and oriental texts it contained. In 1789, a new catalogue of this collection was produced for its sale by auction in London that year. Pinelli’s library had been purchased two years earlier by four London booksellers (Edwards, Faulder, Molini and Robson) for about £6000 from his heir, Daniele Zanchi.
‘catalogue curieux et fort recherché’, Brunet III, 1899; Peignot 118.