MELLINI, Domenico (1540-1610). Trattato...dell'origine, fatti, costumi e lodi di Matelda, la gran contessa d'Italia. Florence: Filippo Giunti, 1589. 4° (216 x 141mm). Woodcut device on title, full-page illustration of an enthroned Matilda. (Illustration shaved at the foremargin with some loss of image, waterstained throughout, library stamp on title and at foot of G1r.) Contemporary boards (head of upper cover defective). Provenance: Refendenze Mumolu? (ownership inscription on title) -- Centro Studi Sociali, Milano (book label on endpaper and spine, stamp on title) -- Compagnia del Gesú (book label).

MELLINI, Domenico (1540-1610). Trattato...dell'origine, fatti, costumi e lodi di Matelda, la gran contessa d'Italia. Florence: Filippo Giunti, 1589. 4° (216 x 141mm). Woodcut device on title, full-page illustration of an enthroned Matilda. (Illustration shaved at the foremargin with some loss of image, waterstained throughout, library stamp on title and at foot of G1r.) Contemporary boards (head of upper cover defective). Provenance: Refendenze Mumolu? (ownership inscription on title) -- Centro Studi Sociali, Milano (book label on endpaper and spine, stamp on title) -- Compagnia del Gesú (book label).

FIRST EDITION of Mellini's account of the turbulent life of the Contessa Matilda (1046-1115), ruler (but rendering homage to the emperor) of almost all of central Italy. Mellini, author of about ten books, composed this work by translating a poem of Matilda's life by her contemporary, Dionizzoni. Adams M-1228.