[Archeology/Rome] Ligorio, Pirro: Book of m. Pyrrho Ligori Neapolitan, of the antiquities of Rome, in which are treated of the circi, theatri, and amphitheatres. In Venice, by Michele Tramezino, 1553

Format in-8°, mm. 145x100, cards (4), 51, (2). Later binding (20th century) in half parchment with silent spine. Title page and colophon with typ. brand in woodcut. Italian text. 4 woodcut capital letters. Sporadic foxing. Handwritten notes in old Indian ink on the front. With an old coat of arms drawn in Indian ink on the penultimate card (G4). Very light stain at the corners of the first cards.

Cinquecentina printed in Venice in 1552 for Michele Tramezino. Work by Pirro Ligorio (Naples, 1512/1513 – 1583) was an Italian architect, painter and antiquarian. In addition to being an "eminent scholar", he is also known as a "skilled forger" of Latin inscriptions. This short but lively treatise on the antiquities of Rome was conceived by Pirro Ligorio as a preliminary publication to the monumental antiquarian encyclopedia (Antiquitates) that he had been preparing to compile for some time, but which was never published. Agile, discursive and pervaded by humanistic polemical vis, the text allows us to understand the method of the famous Neapolitan antiquarian, who was among the first to combine literary testimonies with field findings and archaeological and numismatic sources.