INGHIRAMI, Curzio Ethruscorum antiquitatum fragmenta, quibus Urbis Romae, aliarumque gentium primordia, mores, & res gestae indicantur (...) reperta Scornelli prope Vulterram (...). 1637 s.n., folio, later vellum (def.), flat spine (front joint...
Estimation :
350 / 600
Adjudication :
Invendu
Description
splitting, title label dam.), [24]-324 pp. (occ. spotting, wormtrack in blank inner margin of 1st and last quires, tear in folding pl.). Good copy.
Famous fake. C. Inghirami (1614-1655) "concocted, concealed, 'discovered' and consistently defended a series of Latin texts laced with Etruscan. They were preserved in capsules christened 'scarith' and had supposedly been written by one Prospero of Fiesole, an Etruscan student priest, while he was guarding the remote citadel of Scornello on the Inghirami estate south of Volterra. The texts reveal parallels between Etruscan religious beliefs and Catholic (but not Calvinist) doctrine (...). Local debate soon raised the question of authenticity (...). A decisive blow came in 1640 with 200 pages of 'Animadversiones' by Leone Allaci, a learned Greek based in the Vatican library: he likened Inghirami's 'Fragmenta' to 'a new Augean stable' (that is, dung)" (D. Ridgway, review of I. Rowland's "The Scarith of Scornello: A Tale of Renaissance Forgery", 2004). "The imprint is false; printed at Florence, presumably by Giovanni Battista Landini, since the ornaments used in this book are also found in a number of his publications" (Rhodes). Printed within ruled borders. Double-page engr. map, and 2 (of 3?) folding engravings outside coll. (i.a. a large genealogical tree). Numerous woodcuts in text.
Famous fake. C. Inghirami (1614-1655) "concocted, concealed, 'discovered' and consistently defended a series of Latin texts laced with Etruscan. They were preserved in capsules christened 'scarith' and had supposedly been written by one Prospero of Fiesole, an Etruscan student priest, while he was guarding the remote citadel of Scornello on the Inghirami estate south of Volterra. The texts reveal parallels between Etruscan religious beliefs and Catholic (but not Calvinist) doctrine (...). Local debate soon raised the question of authenticity (...). A decisive blow came in 1640 with 200 pages of 'Animadversiones' by Leone Allaci, a learned Greek based in the Vatican library: he likened Inghirami's 'Fragmenta' to 'a new Augean stable' (that is, dung)" (D. Ridgway, review of I. Rowland's "The Scarith of Scornello: A Tale of Renaissance Forgery", 2004). "The imprint is false; printed at Florence, presumably by Giovanni Battista Landini, since the ornaments used in this book are also found in a number of his publications" (Rhodes). Printed within ruled borders. Double-page engr. map, and 2 (of 3?) folding engravings outside coll. (i.a. a large genealogical tree). Numerous woodcuts in text.
