Imperiali's library. FONTANINI. Bibliothecae Josephi Renati Imperialis Catalogus.

Folio, mm. 335x225; Contemporary full morocco binding, double frames with fleurons gilded at the centre and at the corners, ornaments and titles on the spine; pp. 2, V, 1 nn., 1-582, 2 bl., 583-738. Wide vignette engraved with the device of the Carnival, illustrated initials. Slight spread foxing, good copy.

First edition. The catalogue of the prestigious library of Cardinal Joseph Imperiali was drafted by Fontaniniat the time his librarian: over twenty thousand works are described in the first part ordered by author, in the second by topic. Taylor: "The care shown in describing and classifying the books makes the Imperiali catalogue and its subject-index a good source of information about seventeenth-century books." Pollard & Ehrman: "the Imperiali catalogue" includes under each author's name all his contributions to the periodicals and miscellanies in the library as well as his separately published books. For this reason it was recognised as a useful work of reference on its own. The library was scattered at the end of the eighteenth century.