da Venezia (Federigo) Commentum in Apocalypsim (with title: Apocalypsis cum glosis Nicolai de Lyra)

Federigo da Venezia. Commentum in Apocalypsim (with title: Apocalypsis cum glosis Nicolai de Lyra), collation: [a-o10 p8 q-r10 s8], 137 ff. (of 176 leaves; lacking a1, f10, g1-10, h3, h5-6, h8, i1-10, m1-10, q1, q10, s8), with d10-e10 mis-bound following a9, text in single column, 37 lines, chapter headings and numbers added in red ink in a contemporary hand, blank capital spaces with printed guide letters, a few early ink notes to margins, later ink notes to rear endpaper verso, some water-staining and spotting, a few other instances of soiling, upper hinge starting, nineteenth century calf-backed boards, rubbed, folio (272 x 178mm.), [Rome], [Printer of the Apocalypsis], [c.1469].*** A wide-margined copy of the first edition in Italian of this commentary on the Book of Revelation, this work it competes for priority – along with Bonaventure's Legenda maior S. Francisci – as the first printed book in the Italian vernacular. Some confusion lingers around the earliest days of printing in Italy, but certainly this work is one of the earliest books printed in Rome. The type-page has the same dimensions as Han's 1468 Cicero (ISTC). Provenance: 'De Apocalipsis S.ti Joanni è S.ti Bernd.ni Morani' [ownership inscription to a2 foot, sixteenth century hand; ?possibly the Franciscan monastery of St. Bernardino of Siena, Calabria]Literature: BMC IV 143; Goff J225; GW M12937; Bod-Inc: J-151; ISTC if00052700.