Fausto

1554 · ref. 6336 — Venice: Plinio Pietrasanta 1554. First edition. Very Good. Quarto 22 cm; 45 3 pages last leaf blank. Title within woodcut architectural border. Historiated woodcut initials throughout. In half vellum over 17th- or 18th-century woodblock printed paste paper titled in manuscript on spine. Lower board ruptured near corner subsequently rebuilt. Some leaves toned brown. Early ownership inscriptions and later bibliographical notes on front free endpaper and on rear pastedown. References: Adams F-182; Olschki Choix de livres anciens VI 5817 This essay extolling marriage is an early artifact of modern ethnography in that it poses as a survey of marriage customs through history and around the world. In true humanist fashion Fausto mines the ancient historians for most of his material. So we find out that in Lacedaemonia or Atlantis men who refused to marry were forced to run naked through the forum in the dead of winter and that in Assyria husbands were bound by law to obey their wives. The text concludes with a long series of Q&A "quesiti" concerning marriage ceremonies in which we find out why the Boetians crowned brides with asparagus why Persian couples wait until spring to "consummate" any marriage and why it is customary to grease the newlyweds' doorway with pig fat or wolf fat. The book is also notable for its lovely large woodcut initials including a letter T showing a satyr and a man at table together a P with a bare-breasted woman driving a triumphal chariot and an N with a lion-headed man astride a swimming horse. Plinio Pietrasanta hardcover