From the library of Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Doni, Anton Francesco. I mondi. Libro primo.

$9,496.00

First edition: the independently published first book of two (the latter of which followed in 1553, with the title "Inferni"). Doni's dialogues on the seven worlds were produced for his "Accademia dei Pellegrini", an academy based in Venice but with members throughout the peninsula (though it is only referred to in books by Doni and may not have actually existed). Francesco Marcolini, the printer, was one member, as were Enea Vico, Lodovico Dolce and Titian.

Doni's worlds are the small world (a microcosm), the large world (the actual world), the imagined world, the mixed world, the risible world, the world of the wise and mad (a utopia), and the great world (of God). In the section on the human world, he mentions the invention of printing by "Giovanni da Magontia" (Gutenberg), and likens the products of the press as the many-headed Hydra (G3). Brunet praises this first part as "surtout remarquable à cause des figures en bois et des portraits d'Italiens célèbres dont elle est ornée". These portraits include Machiavelli and Pietro Aretino, along with Gabriele Simeoni, Domenico Burchiello, Francesco Alunno and Niccolò Tartaglia. This copy has leaf F4v in the later (corrected) state.

Doni, a man of many talents, is considered the Italian translator of Sir Thomas More's "Utopia" and as the spiritual link beween More and Campanella.