Contes

A Catalogue of the Celebrated Library of the late Count Borromeo of Padua. Containing the most rare and curious Assemblage of Italian Novels of the XV. and XVI century both Printed and Manuscript which has ever been submitted to Public Sale. with a second title on the following leaf: Catalogo de' Novellieri Italiani.Edizione terza con aggiunte. One engraved plate of facsimiles. 2 p.l. 77 pp. 8vo modern red sheep-backed marbled boards spine lettered in gilt. London: "which will be sold by Auction by Mr. Evans.on Friday February 7 and Saturday February 8 1817."

5019 — After Borromeo's death in 1813 his library was purchased en bloc by Payne and Foss who sold it by auction through Evans. The catalogue most interestingly is written in Italian throughout with its own title-page the only English sale catalogue in that language. The catalogue was based on Borromeo's own catalogues of 1794 and 1805 but with additional notes marked with three asterisks. It contained the true first edition of the Decameron GW 4440 bought by Lord Spencer for 121.6.0 pounds now in the John Rylands Library. Fine copy priced throughout in a contemporary hand with buyers' and prices realized. Small embossed stamp on titles and elsewhere of the Athenaeum Library 1850. Bookplates of Wilfred Merton and A.R.A. Hobson. ❧ Gustave Brunet Dictionnaire de Bibliologie Catholique col. 560. unknown books