CORIO, Bernardino (1459-1519 ca.) - Viri clarissimi mediolanensis Patria historia. Milan: Alessandro Minuziano, 1503. An annotated copy of the first...

CORIO, Bernardino (1459-1519 ca.) - Viri clarissimi mediolanensis Patria historia. Milan: Alessandro Minuziano, 1503. An annotated copy of the first edition of the most important history of Milan and the first to be composed in the vernacular. The work tells the story from the origins of the city to the flight of Ludovico il Moro to Germany. Folio (345 x 244mm). Full-page woodcut portrait of the author at the desk as the opening page (defective: first gathering π consisting of only 4 leaves instead of 6, lacking title, 2a1 and the second repeated portrait of Corio and the allegory of Virtue; the initial leaves with some heavy marginal worming, restorations and reinforcements, worming continuing in the inner margin of the following leaves, some damp and mold staining, 2F1 with lower corner repaired with some text loss reintegrated in manuscript). 19th-century calf decorated in blind and gilt (extremities lightly rubbed, few tiny wormholes). As the work is incomplete it is sold not subject to return. Provenance: numerous early annotations - Mario Cermenati (ownership inscription on endpaper).