CIACCONIO (Chacón), Alfonso <1540-1599> - Vitae, et res gestae pontificum Romanorum et s.r.e. cardinalium ab initio nascentis Ecclesiæ vsque ad Clementem IX. p.o.m. Alphonsi Ciaconii Ordinis Praedicatorum & aliorum opera descriptæ: cum vberrimis notis. Ab Augustino Oldoino Societatis Iesu recognitæ, & ad quatuor tomos ingenti vbique rerum accessione productæ. Additis pontificum recentiorum imaginibus, & cardinalium insignibus, plurimisque æneis figuris, cum indicibus locupletissimis. Tomus primus [-quartus]. Romæ : cura, et sumptib. Philippi, et Ant. de Rubeis, 1677.
Folio (41.5x27 cm), 4 big and thick volumes in contemporary brown calf, gilt spines with titles in gold on red calf labels (quite worn at corners and head/foot of spines with calf losses), internally in parts more or less browned for own quality of the paper, several leaves or quires loose or partially disbound . Titles in red and black, each with half-page engraving, almost 2.000 woodcuts in the text depicting portraits of popes and Cardinals, and their coat-of--arms, but also seals, couins, medals, and almost 50 engraved plates. Hundreds of pages, item not collated, sold as is, LOT NOT SUBJECT TO RETURN.
A beautiful set – very rare when complete – of this encyclopaedic work on the Popes and Cardinals, with a very relevant iconographic apparatus. Graesse II, pag. 155 quotes only later editions; Brunet II, 1 (notes).