Beschreibung:

4°, circa 22,5 x 17,5 cm., 12, 68 num. ff.; 14, 198 num. ff.; 14, 166 num. ff., with 4 large portraits, 4 printer s devices, some initials and woodcut ornaments. Half-vellum around 1900 wih red label to spine Adams M 281; Edit 16, CNCE 28600; BMC, Italian 406. First edition of all three extant books of this large history of Siena written by the patrician and town representative Orlando Malavolti (1515-1596) who died before he could finish his work. The first book had come out separately in 1574. The present copy does have the first 4 leaves with an extra title and a dedication that seem to lack in many other copies (here there are altogether 4+8=12 leaves instead of only 8). Malavolti prepared also a map of the town and its surroundings that does though circulate independtly from the book. All three parts and the first four leaves with the dedication have a woodcut portrait of Malavolti in a nice border. - All three titels with a small old armorial stamp, last endpaper with two older stamps of a freemason s lodge and a crowned eagle, only little browning or spotting, mostly crisp, just slightly rubbed, else fine.