Lucas Bonetti

Italian first edition in Nicolo Manerbio's translation of Jacques de Voragine's Lives of the Saints. Superbly illustrated with a baroque title-frontispiece bearing the central printer's device, 12 small vignettes for the calendar, and 233 vignettes illustrating the lives of the Saints. 5 copies in Italian catalogues, one at Oxford.
The second text is a rare Siena imprint on the life of San Galgan or Galgano (1148-1181), born at Chiusdino near Siena in Tuscany. Printed in italics. 1577 edition with a large title vignette. 2 copies in Italian catalogues, one at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and one at the British Library. Date of 3 December 1576 in the colophon.
Contemporary limp vellum binding with overlapping flaps. Smooth spine with title in black ink calligraphy running lengthwise. Traces of ties, one still present. Various stains on the vellum, spine darkened. Trimmed short throughout, sometimes affecting a few letters in the upper margin. Pp. 54 and 55 passage crossed out in black ink over 8 lines. Pale yellow dampstaining in the lower portion throughout the leaves, then in the middle and upper portions on the last 100 leaves, sometimes barely visible, sometimes more pronounced. Small wormholes on several leaves, in the inner margin, in the middle. Some signatures protruding. Transposition of signatures after p. 432 which goes to 445-448 then 437-444, with a return to pp. 433-436, then 449... Similarly, p. 487 after page 484 then return to leaf 485...