ROCCA, Angelo (1545-1620). Bibilotheca Apostolica Vaticana. Rome: Typographia Apostolica Vaticana, 1591. 4° (240 x 175mm). Title printed in red and black and with engraved vignette, engraved folding plate, engraved illustrations including one full-page of St Peter’s, exotic types, printed correction slips tipped into margins of T2 and Z2. (Some light scattered spotting, full-page illustration slightly trimmed.) Contemporary limp vellum, fore edge titled in manuscript in an early hand, spine lettered in manuscript in a later hand (lacking ties, spine foot chipped and crudely repaired with a strip of vellum). Provenance: Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872; Middle Hill pressmark in manuscript ‘XCI.f.5’).

ROCCA, Angelo (1545-1620). Bibilotheca Apostolica Vaticana. Rome: Typographia Apostolica Vaticana, 1591. 4° (240 x 175mm). Title printed in red and black and with engraved vignette, engraved folding plate, engraved illustrations including one full-page of St Peter’s, exotic types, printed correction slips tipped into margins of T2 and Z2. (Some light scattered spotting, full-page illustration slightly trimmed.) Contemporary limp vellum, fore edge titled in manuscript in an early hand, spine lettered in manuscript in a later hand (lacking ties, spine foot chipped and crudely repaired with a strip of vellum). Provenance: Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872; Middle Hill pressmark in manuscript ‘XCI.f.5’).

THE PHILLIPPS COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION. Rare. ABPC and RBH record only two copies at auction in nearly 50 years: the Mendham and Macclesfield copies. Rocca, Vatican Librarian and founder of the Angelica Library, considers the history of the Vatican Library, early printing history, and exotic types. EDIT16 CNCE 33796.