Recently acquired rare and antiquarian books - Summer 2011

These past few weeks, we have made several interesting acquisitions - all of these works will be housed in Special Collections.

Libro de Nobeli Veneti che vanno in Gran Conseglio con l'origine, et arme delle loro famiglie: Aggiustato fino li 4 Agosto 1631 per Andrea Beni. (Venice, dalla Preggion Giustiniana, 9 September 1631).

The Gran Conseglio or Maggior Consiglio of Venice was the main political institution of the Venetian Republic from the 12^th century until it declared the Republic’s end in 1797. Participation was a hereditary right, restricted to members of the old Venetian families inscribed in the Libro d’oro. The first official Libro d’oro was created in 1506. It recorded the genealogy of the families as a way of identifying imposters claiming membership in the Gran Conseglio. Never published, manuscript copies of the Libro d’oro were made for private use, mainly in formats smaller than the quarto proposed here. The copyist, Andrea Beni, composed this Libro d’oro from the Giustiniana, the ducal prison in Venice, possibly to repay the debts that landed him there.

Saluzzo-Roero, Diodata. Versi di Diodata Saluzzo, fra gli Arcadi, Glaucilla Eurotea. Torino: stamp. d'I. Soffietti, 1796.

Térence. L'Andria [-l'Eunuco, l'Affannatore, i Due fratelli, il Formione, la Ecira], commedia di Terenzio, tradotta in verso sciolto [col testo a fronte] da Luisa Bergalli. 1727.

Translation of Terence’s first play by Venetian female playright, Luisa Bergalli, director of the S. Angelo theater in Venice.

Bastille – Collection of 14 pieces concerning the Bastille, published between 1790-1793. On topics such as surveillance, funding for arms, clothing, etc., for those who participated in the storming of the Bastille (“les vainqueurs”), and the establishment of a monument to be erected on the site of the demolished prison.

Choppinus, Renatus. Hieromachia s. bellum sacrum gallicum. 1562.

First edition of this work by the lawyer Rene Choppin, a political-religious poem exalting the war against the heretics (Protestants) and showing Choppin’s loyalty to the Catholic cause.

Dunkirk – Manuscript signed on behalf of the “Bailly Bourgmestre et Eschvins de la ville et territoire de Dunkerque,” dated October 5, 1733. 8 pages.

A document proposing the establishment of a consul, and consular law, in this port town.

Mahalin, Paul. Les cocottes!!!!! Paris: Chez tous les libraires, 1864.

Contemporary observations about prostitutes in Paris – where they ate, drank, and slept in a nice little book covered in red silk.

Legende de Domp Claude de Guyse, abbé de Cluny: contenant ses faits et gestes depuis sa nativité jusques à la mort du cardinal de Lorraine : et des moyens tenus pour faire mourir le roy Charles IX emsemble plusieurs princes, grands Seigneurs et autres, durant le dit temps. 1581.

An early edition of this Protestant work, in which the author pretends to defend the Catholic Guise family as a way of enumerating their prosecutions of Protestants, with a special attention to actions in the Macon region. This copy was owned by Colbert, as a note “Bibliotheca Colbertina” on the title page attests.