FANTI (Sigismondo). Triompho da Fortuna. S.l.n.d. [colophon] - Lot 145

FANTI (Sigismondo). Triompho da Fortuna. S.l.n.d. [colophon]: Venice, Agostino da Portese, January 1527, for Jacomo Giunta. In-folio, vellum, title in ink on spine, edges speckled with red (17th-century binding). Extremely rare first edition of this divination work. It is the second illustrated book of its kind after Lorenzo Spirito's Libro delle sorti (circa 1480). Composed by an author from Ferrara, the book is conceived as a divinatory game, offering readers the chance to discover their destiny. Armed with a dice, the reader is plunged into a labyrinthine path strewn with wheels, spheres and astrological squares, and must find an answer to one of the 72 questions posed at the beginning of the book. The rich iconography of this mysterious book makes it one of the finest Venetian illustrations of the 16th century. The illustrations include numerous small vignettes in the text of the introductory leaves, 12 figures of Fortune, 12 representations of Case (palaces of the most noble Venetian families), 72 large woodcuts for the various wheels, 36 figures of spheres, large decorative borders surrounding around a hundred pages, adorned with historiated scenes, portraits, figures, grotesques, etc., and finally, 1628 astrological squares each adorned with a small woodcut, plus 148 others of medium size accompanying them. Handwritten bookplate on one endpaper, dated 1802. Handwritten bookplate on flyleaf: Rud. Weigel's Kunst Catalog n°9987 20th def. Copy lacking the title leaf (set in large wood) and 3 other leaves (AA6, A1 and A8), the text of which was partially restored on 5 handwritten leaves at the time of binding. Large brown stain on 3 leaves of AA, edge tear on leaves A4 and A5, small restoration at bottom of leaves G1 and G8, dampstaining of H at end. Leaves A2 and Q10 detached. The volume is partly detached from the spine. Despite these defects, the copy remains desirable: indeed, the only complete copy known to have come on to the market in the last 50 years is that in the Otto Schaefer library (1993, no. 76). (Essling, p. 652; Brunet, t. II, col. 1178.)