BC Palermo Incunables

[Palermo, Biblioteca Comunale]. LI CALSI, Giuseppina

[INCUNABULA REFERENCE]. Catalogo degli Incunabuli della Biblioteca Comunale di Palermo

Palermo: Centro di studi filologici e linguistici siciliani, 1978. First Edition. Large 8vo. 263, [4] pp. Original wrappers, edges almost entirely uncut. Illustrated with 18 full-page photographic plates of high quality. NOT ex-library! Fine. Item #3160

Scarce catalogue of fifteenth century books in the Municipal Library of Palermo, a formidable collection of 1,038 incunables (plus three in the Appendix, for which see below). Ours appears to be the only copy currently on the market. Admirably compiled by Giuseppina Li Calsi (1917-2001), the work contains 18 *useful* images of genuinely rare incunables; in other words, this is a catalogue for serious scholars.

The collection contains at least three "unica":

1. Andreas de Escobar "Modus confitendi" [Rome: Printer of 'Mercuriales Quaestiones' (Theobaldus Schencbecher ?), about 1473] -- Li Calsi's Appendice I & Tav. VIa-b;
2. Indulgentiae ecclesiarum principalium urbis Romae [Rome: Printer of 'Mercuriales Quaestiones' (Theobaldus Schencbecher?), about 1473] -- Li Calsi's Appendice II;
3. Virgil, Opera (Milan: Antonius Zarotus, for Johannes de Legnano, 25 Feb. 1485) -- Li Calsi's no. 1015 & Tav. Va-b.

This work appeared as Volume 4 (Supplement) of the Bollettino of the Centro di studi filologici e linguistici siciliani. It is not to be confused with her colleague Anna Maria Dotto's "Catalogo degli incunabuli della Biblioteca nazionale di Palermo" (1971).

¶ From the famed Bibliotheca Bibliographica Breslaueriana (sale at Christies NY, 2005, lot 1255).

Price: $100.00