[Fencing. Capoferro] (Gran simulacro dell'arte e dell'uso della scherma)

No place, publisher or year (after 1652), engraved portrait of the author, engraved coat of arms of Francesco Maria Feltrio della Roevere, duke of Urbino with the personifications of Justitia and Prudentia on both sides, followed by 43 numbered, engraved plates by R. Schiaminossi, bound in Italian limp parchment, oblong 4to.

Here and there waterstained, soiled and other small defects in margins (first and final leaves trifle frayed and tanned in outer margin). Several plates with old additions of letters or numbers in pen. Lacks free endpapers, endpapers on inside boards damaged; parchment soiled, wrinkled and with old pen scribbling and the back cover lacks a corner. All early editions of this famous fencing book are (very) rare. The first edition of the book appeared in Siena, in 1610, with letterpress text. The second edition appeared in Bologna, 1652. Characteristic of this second edition was the fact that the title and the highly condensed text of the first edition were affixed in letterpress strips to the lower margin of the plates. Moreover, the plates for this second edition were heavily reworked and, remarkably, several plates had complicated scenes added behind the fencing figures, such as Adam and Eva in Paradise, Cain slaying Abel, Noah's Ark and the Tower of Babel. Our untraced edition with only prints of heavily worn plates and entirely without text is indeed dated in the 17th century due to the binding and the paper (watermark: circle).