BOCCACCIO, Giovanni. II Decamerone […] alla sua intera perfettione ridotto, et con dichiarationi et avvertimenti illustrato, per Girolamo Ruscelli. Hora in questa seconda edizione dal medesimo per tutto migliorato. Con un vocabolario general nel fine del libro, & con gli Epiteti dell’Autore […].

A very fine copy of the 1554 reprint of the illustrated edition given by Valgrisi in 1552, with the second part dated 1557, illustrated with 10 large woodcuts within frames at the beginning of each “day”.

Edit 16 6333 (&6340) ; Mortimer, Harvard Italian 73 (1552 Valgrisi edition); STC Italian, p. 110 ; Sander, 1071 ; Essling, 660 (ed. 1552) ; Gamba, 177 (ed. 1572).

Second Ruscelli edition.

A masterpiece of Boccaccio and Italian literature, written in all probability between 1350 and 1355, the Decameron is the completion of the poet’s prose work, in which the middle-age novel attains its highest degree of perfection.

The engravings are inserted inside frames composed of putti and grotesques, which are repeated for each engraving.

“In illustration as well as in text, this edition had to compete with those of Giolito. Valgrisi’s artist took the theme of the Giolito illustrations – the ten scenes of the company at a villa – and almost doubled the height of the blocks to include more architectural details and views. The new emphasis of the illustration is stated on the title-page. Valgrisi used the blocks again in a 1557 edition with Baldassarre Costantini (hcl). Blocks and border reappear in editions by Fabio and Agostino Zoppino and Onofrio Farri (hcl 1588 and 1590 editions)”.

A very fine copy bound in Parisian 17^th century morocco in the Duseuil style.

Provenance : Roger Portalis (1841-1912).