misc: Italian

Colloques ou dialogues, 1616 (A4v-A5r)

The odd shape of this book (little and oblong) comes from its contents (seven columns of dialogues in different languages) and its use (a pocket-sized volume for travelers).

Gianicolo, Type specimen, 1529 (recto)

This specimen sheet features only a font of italic type, but in a visually attractive demonstration of its possibilities.

Gučetić, Dialogo della bellezza, 1581 (a1r)

This title page showcases the Ziletti printer’s device, a comet and seven stars with their motto “inter omnes” (“among all”). Here Francesco Ziletti uses the device of his uncle, Giordano Ziletti, but with his own spin -- most noticeably, the inclusion of two upside-down topless women who were not present in Giordano's works.

Kats, Ma’aseh Toviyah, 1708 (40.2v)

This imprimatur, the only page in Italian in this Hebrew encyclopedia, verifies that the book may legally be printed because the Inquisitors have found it to contain no anti-Catholic, anti-government, or immoral content.

Kats, Ma’aseh Toviyah, 1708 (π1r)

This title page combines both Hebrew and roman type, indicating its origin at a Hebrew print studio in Venice. The main part of the title reads, "Part one of the book of worlds or Ma'aseh Toviyah containing the four worlds. And it is divided into five parts. The first part describes the world above, that is the spiritual world. The second the world of the middle, that is the world of the planets. The third is the lower world that is our world. The fourth is the small world, that is The Man. The fifth in the foundations of the world."