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Opera di frate Vespasiano Amphiareo da Ferrara dell'ordine minore conventvale
nella quale si insegna a scrivere varie sorti di lettere, e massime vna lettera bastarda da lvi novamente con sva indvstria ritrovata, laqval serve al cancellaresco et mercantesco ; poi insegna a far l'inchiostro ... anchora a macinar l'oro et scriuere con esso ... parimente a scriuere con l'azuro, & col cinaprio
Opera nella quale s'insegna a scrivere varie sorti di lettere
96 unnumbered pages (page 96 unnumbered blank) ; 16 x 21 cm
Title and subsequent pages enclosed in border.
Originally published 1548 under title: Uno novo modo d'insegnar a scrivere et formar lettere di piu sorte.
Purchased for the Cushing Library/Rare Books collection by the Cushing Library.
After a brief prefatory exposition follow forty-three leaves with eighty-six plates of letterforms, ranging in style from the highly flourished to the starkly geometric, including a series of elaborate and exotically decorated capitals as well as simpler, geometrically designed miniscules and Roman capitals. The former category, observes Osley, comprises "a set of capitals derived from tree-trunks; another . . . of heavy gothic initials, hung with grotesque masks and providing a scaffolding on which naked cherubs, monkeys, storks and dogs engage in various activities; and a third [with] rather hairy letters in black strapwork." The examples are followed by instructions on how to prepare the pen as well as a recipe for ink. A Franciscan friar, Amphiareo taught lettering for thirty years, his calligraphy said to have been as esteemed in Venice as was Palatino's in Rome. The "Opera" was his only book. Plates on D6r to E5r hand-colored in red, purple, orange, blue, yellow, and green. Amphiareo's treatise on typography appeared in several editions over a short period, suggesting some commerical success and certainly artistic interest in his work. Bound in limp vellum, *3 and *4 bound in reverse."--Vendor's website, 12/9/20."
Bonacini, C. Bibl. delle arti scrittorie 48
Johnson, A.F. Catalogue of Italian writing books, in: Signature, n.s. x (1950), p. 34-36