MAZZINELLI, Alessandro (Book of Hours - Latin & Italian). Officio della B. V. Maria per tutti i tempi dell' anno… (1756 - FORE-EDGE PAINTED BOOK OF HOURS IN A FINE ROMAN BINDING BY THE SALVIONI WORKSHOP)

AUTHOR: MAZZINELLI, Alessandro (Book of Hours - Latin & Italian)

TITLE: Officio della B. V. Maria per tutti i tempi dell' anno… Dedicato alli Gloriosissimi Santi Gioacchino, ed Anna.

PUBLISHER: Rome: Gioacchino and Giovanni Giuseppe Salvioni, 1756.

DESCRIPTION: FIRST EDITION FORE-EDGE PAINTED BOOK OF HOURS IN A FINE ROMAN BINDING BY THE SALVIONI WORKSHOP. 1 vol., 8vo (2 parts in one), 8-1/2" x 5-3/4", title pages printed in red and black, with engraved vignette representing SS. Joachim and Anna, with Christ Child and the Virgin, engraved frontispiece and 14 plates by Allet, Frey, Frezza and Waterhout, after Joseph Passarus, depicting biblical scenes and the Virgin’s life. Bound in contemporary richly gilt mottled calf, with elaborate gilt floral designs and strap work on covers and spine, painted in silver and turquoise, central letter piece with initials CE and PF, edges gilt and gauffered, gold floral brocade endpapers, the painted edge portrays the Virgin on the fore edges and floral decorations on all the edges, with the original 2-piece elaborate gilt mottled calf solinder slipcase.

CONDITION: Some minor rubbing with some slight loss to the upper and lower edges of the slipcase, some faint rubbing to edges of the spine cords otherwise in EXCELLENT CONDITION, internally clean and bright, AN OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE OF THE SALVIONI WORKSHOP.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Other examples from the Salvioni Bindery, an atelier worked for or was attached to the office of the official papal printers, are described and illustrated in Dorthy Miner's, "History of Bookbinding, an exhibition" (Baltimore 1957), nos. 523-24, pl. LIX.
For a nearly identical binding see The Doheny Sale Christie's Oct. 17-18, 1988 Lot. #1107 Sold for $10,450.
Also see A. R. A. Hobson, French and Italian Collectors and Their Bindings, 1953, p. 160.