Centorio degli Hortensi, Ascanio. Commentarii della guerra di Transilvania. (With:) La seconda parte de' commentarii delle guerre.

Venice, Gabriel Giolito de' Ferrari, 1566-1569.

4to. 2 vols. in 1. (40), 266, (2) pp. (32), 298, (2) pp. With woodcut printer's devices on both titles, and different device on reverse of final leaf. Contemporary limp vellum.

 3,500.00

First edition (part 1: second issue) of Centorio's memoirs, here complete with both parts, comprising the years until 1553 (pt. 1) and then continued to 1560 (pt. 2). The author's principal work. Centorio lived in Milan around the middle of the 16th century. "Commentaries on the wars against the Turks from Mohács in 1526 onwards. Offers a detailed account of the conflict between Ferdinand and John Zápolya, as well as of the battles of Castaldo. Although the title of pt. 1 mentions 'Re Lodovico XII', this is about Louis II of Hungary, who drowned after the Battle of Mohács, not about Louis XII of France" (cf. Göllner). Dedications to Ottavio Farnese, duke of Parma and Piacenza, and Consalvo Ferrante di Cordova, duke of Sessa. Includes four sonnets by the author and Lodovico Dolce. "Fine woodcut initials and headpieces" (cf. Apponyi).

Slight waterstain near beginning; front pastedown stamped by the Madrid bookseller Gabriel Sanchez.

References

Edit 16, CNCE 10794/10799. Göllner 1061 (pt. 1 only). Adams C 1269. BM-STC Italian 165. Atabey 211. Jöcher I, 1804. Cf. Apponyi 381 (pt. 1, 1st issue only). Not in Blackmer.