Illustrium Imagines : Incorporating a leaf from the 1517 first illustrated numismatic book

[Fulvio, Andrea] Weiss, Roberto, ed.

[Leaf Book] Illustrium Imagines : Incorporating an English Translation of NOTA by Robert Weiss. Accompanied by a Leaf From the First Illustrated Numismatic Book

Crestline, CA. George Frederick Kolbe. 2001. Limited/Numbered Edition. 8vo 8" - 9" tall. 35,(5) pp.

The text is Renaissance scholar Roberto Weiss' first English translation of the essay Nota, a treatise on written works about the growing interest in coins of Ancient Rome. The first book dedicated to numismatics is attributed to Andrea Fulvio and is comprised of pages for individual Roman emperors, with their woodcut portraits, and explanations of coins issued during their tenure.

The purchase of an incomplete, disbound copy of Illustrium Imagines led the publisher to produce this edition featuring an original, woodcut leaf from the 1517 edition, mounted in a die-cut leaf that shows both verso and recto of the original. The frontispiece reproduces the title page of the 1517 edition of Illustrium Imagines. Large medallion illustration by Wesley W. Bates, Canadian wood engraver. The title and colophon pages have small, red, woodcut 'medallion' images.

Tipped in is a color reproduction of a Renaissance gentleman, perhaps Venetian humanist and ambassador Bernado Bembo, holding a coin of the Roman emperor Nero. Facing pages show reproductions of two different colophons found in the 1517 printings. The End Notes are primarily references for the text.

Copy 47 of a limited edition of 151 printed letterpress by Henry Morris' Bird and Bull Press, Newtown, Pennsylvania. Composed by Michael Bixler in Garamond types and printed on light cream, Arches, mould made paper. Bound by Campbell Logan Bindery in black, Japanese book cloth over boards, with gilt title to a goatskin spine label.

Slightest roll to spine. Clean externally and internally, sharp, and quite Fine.