[Prisons/Rome] Scanaroli, Giovanni Battista : De visitatione carceratorum libri tres... In Rome, Tip. Apostolica, 1655

In folio, mm. 315x220, pp. (16), 588, (140), (4), 122, (14). Complete. Contemporary full parchment binding with handwritten titles on the spine. Spray cuts. Copy with the body detached from the cover. Second part with leaves K6 and i1 detached. Small woodworm damage on the margin of the text from p. 233 to p. 264. Defects on the spine. Restorations on the title page and the loop.

First edition printed in Rome in 1655 of the famous work on Roman prisons by Giovanni Battista Scanaroli (1579-1664). Second part introduced with its own frontispiece: Appendix ad tres superiores libros; De visitatione carceratorum diuisa in quatuor... Frontispieces with woodcut typographic device of the Archconfraternity of the Pietà dei Carcerati tra i SS. Pietro e Paolo. Woodcut headpieces, initials and endpieces. The second part includes a full-page engraving of a tortured man (c. d3).

The text (with very rich indexes) reflects the Author's experience within the Roman confraternities dedicated to the assistance of prisoners (the Carità, but also S. Maria della Pietà dei Carcerati) and in the surveillance work entrusted to the tribunal of the Visitation, which like the two confraternities enjoyed the privilege of requesting, at precise moments of the year, the release of a prisoner (imprisoned for non-atrocious crimes or for debts)... [Treccani]