EXTREMELY RARE FIRST AND ONLY EDITION OF CARRANTO'S ACCOUNT OF LUDOVICO SFORZA'S IMPRISONMENT

Carranto, Pietro Matteo. Petrimathaei Carranti Ludouici Sphortiae captiuitas. Ad Petrum Gryphium prothonotarium Apostolicum. Bologna: Gryphius, 1507 [at colophon:] Bononiae: per Ioannem Antonium de Benedictis, 1507.

4to (210x150 mm), contemporary limp vellum, ff. [18]. Printer's device (Zappella 316) at end. Initial spaces with guide letters.

Extremely rare postincunable with the first and only edition of Carranto's historical account on Ludovico Sforza's imprisonment and confinement.

Ludovico Sforza (1452-1508) also called Ludovico il Moro, was Duke of Milan from 1489 until his death. He was famed as a patron of Leonardo da Vinci and other artists, and presided over the final and most productive stage of the Milanese Renaissance. He is probably best known as the man who commissioned the The Last Supper. Ludovico was handed over to the French soldiers of Louis XII in April 1500, during the siege to the city of Novara, where he was based. The armies of both sides included Swiss mercenaries. The Swiss did not want to fight each other and chose to leave Novara. Deprived of all the amenities of life, he spent his last years in the underground dungeon at Loches, where he died on 17 May 1508. The Swiss later executed a soldier from Uri, called Hans Turmann, who had, they claimed, betrayed his employer for money. The Swiss later restored the duchy of Milan to Ludovico's son, Maximilian Sforza.

Provenance: Contemporary inscription Ja Wy Bambergensis Emi Rome die mensis Iunij 1508 fortuna of a German humanist from Bamberg, not identified.

References: Cnce, 9696 (5 copies). OCLC locates only five copies worldwide (2 in USA, University of Texas at Austin and University of Pennsylvania). Not in Adams.

Very fine and crisp.