Bartolomeo TAEGIO

La villa dialogo…all'Inuittissimo, & gloriosissimo Imperatore Ferdinando Primo.  [22], 181 [i.e. 185], [5] pp, [pp 102 and 103 repeat 3 times].  Illustrated with woodcut printers device on the title-page, woodcut portrait of the author and four woodcuts in text two of which are full page.  Small 4to., 194 x 133 mm, bound in contemporary limp vellum, manuscript title on spine. Milano, Francesco Moscheni, 1559.

First Edition.  A fine unsophisticated copy of this rarity on the subject of garden architecture.  Here the author, Bartolomeo Taegio, presents his argument for the superiority of rural life in the form of a dialog between two gentlemen.  The foundation of his argument comes from classical antiquity, the idea of ‘vita contemplativa’ routed in the writings of Cicero and Pliny the Younger.  The spirit of the Renaissance pervades the text as geometry and proportion in harmony with the delicacy of nature are rightly celebrated. 

For today’s reader, the value lies in the detailed discussion of hundreds of existing villas in Lombardy.  Whereas the literature of architecture is pervasive in the sixteenth century, far less common is that of garden architecture, the present text perhaps one of the cornerstones of the genre.  Further appeal can be found in the charming woodcuts which render an appealing image of the Italian countryside. 

Worldcat locates 9 copies in the US at the Getty, Huntington, U. Penn, Columbia, Cal Berkley, The Newberry, Princeton and Boston Public.  Rare Book Hub turns up just one copy at auction that seems in questionable condition.  The present copy has superficial wear, however, can be considered a fine, bright copy.

PROVENANCE:  Bookplate of M. Cajratie, Milon on the front paste-down, bookplate of Biblioteca Fagani G. on the front fly-leaf.

 I. Lauterbach, ‘The Gardens of the Milanese ‘Villeggiatura’ in the Mid-Sixteenth Century’, in: The Italian Garden: Art, Design and Culture, J.D. Hunt, ed., Cambridge, 1996, pp. 152-159C.  Lazzaro, The Italian Renaissance Garden: From the Conventions of Planting, Design, and Ornament to the Grand Gardens of Sixteenth-Century Central Italy, New Haven, CT & London, 1990, pp. 9-10.