Oct 16, 2018 - Sale 2488

Sale 2488 - Lot 82

Price Realized: $ 27,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 25,000
BOCCACCIO, GIOVANNI. De claris mulieribus. 76 woodcut illustrations. [69] (of [70]) leaves, including final blank; lacks initial blank. Gothic type. Folio, 271x198 mm, red morocco panelled in blind by Riviere & Son, front joint just starting at top; occasional marginal soiling, scattered marginal foxing and minor stains, manuscript initial on verso of first 2 leaves showing through on recto, light partial tinting on several woodcuts. Bookplate of Mary S. Collins. (Louvain: Aegidius van der Heerstraten, 1487)

Additional Details

Third edition, and the first printed in the Low Countries, of the first published work of female biography, containing lives of over 100 famous women from the biblical Eve to the 14th-century Queen Giovanna of Naples. The original edition appeared in 1473 in Ulm. The only comparable work written earlier was Plutarch's Mulierum virtutes, which was not published until 1485. HC 3331; GW 4485; BMC IX, 166; Fairfax Murray/German 77; ISTC ib00718000 (28 collections, including 7 in the U. S.).