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1658 · réf. 180973 — Venice: Bartolomeo Federici 1658. One of the earliest horse brand books Rare first edition illustrating and describing over 100 early horse brands in use in the Veneto Lombardia and Romagna regions of northern Italy. This copy finely bound for Count Pierre de Mornay was exhibited at the Grolier Club in January 1895. We have traced only one copy of this edition in auction records in over 60 years and fewer than 10 copies in libraries worldwide. Brand books intended as registers of brands used to identify livestock originated in Renaissance Italy to record horse markings. They were typically printed in small pocket-size format to be used in the field and with one single illustration per page to facilitate consultation. The earliest example known is Libro de marchi di cavalli Venice 1569. Giovanni Battista Nani 1616-1678 was a Venetian historian and politician. In the address to the reader he explains that he composed the book as a guide to the best breeds of northern Italy as he could not find many described in the only source he had: Francesco Liberati's La perfettione del Cavallo 1639. The brands consist of initials within circles clover leaves crowns and shields often simplified versions of family symbols and coats of arms. Each is accompanied by a note indicating the owner or breeder and which part of the horse the brand is applied to. Page 63 shows the brand of the Medici family in Florence. On page 69 is Nani's family brand the same appearing on the hind leg of the newly branded horse on the frontispiece suggesting that the man holding it is the author himself or his patron. This copy features the printed note "ad instanza di Bartolomeo Federici" at foot of the title page and the initials "B.F." on a8r absent in some copies. This variant is possibly the earliest issue see Dejager. Provenance: Stephen C. Massey. Sextodecimo 110 x 70 mm pp. xvi 112 lacking leaf of text F8. Woodcut frontispiece and 105 illustrations text within ruled border tailpieces. Nineteenth-century blue crushed morocco by Hardy-Mennil spine with raised bands compartments decorated in gilt covers ruled in gilt with armorial centrepieces of Count Pierre de Mornay-Soult de Dalmatie Olivier 706 board edges and turn-ins tooled in gilt marbled endpapers edges gilt yellow red and green silk bookmarker. From the military library of Pierre count of Mornay-Soult de Dalmatie and marquis of Mornay-Monchevreuil 1837-1905 which was auctioned in Paris on 25 February 1874. Tiny chip at head of spine contents slightly toned a handsome copy. Dejager 224; Huth p. 21; Podeschi 28. Grolier Club The Catalogue of Books from the Libraries or Collections of Celebrated Bibliophiles and Illustrious Persons of the Past with Arms or Devices Upon the Bindings 1895 no 244 armorial stamp misattributed to Jules-Auguste-Joseph-Christophe marquis de Mornay-Montchevreuil. hardcover