This volume contains the first edition of the collection of works by Lorenzo Valla (1407-57), printed in Basel “per Henricum Petri” in 1540 when, under the supervision of a number of scholars, the writings of the great humanist were collected together and, as stated on the title page, collated with different exemplars.¹ The work, bound in Augsburg with characteristic motifs dry-tooled on the binding (David playing the harp, St Paul and the Resurrection), belonged to Bonaccorso Grino, “valiant in arms and letters”, who passed through Germany in 1553 among the followers of Charles V;² it was only later that the book, along with other volumes from the same collection, almost all printed in northern Europe and likewise bound in Augsburg,³ entered the library created in the 16th century by the Piloni family in the Villa Casteldardo in Trichiana near Belluno.⁴ It comprised an extraordinary collection of around 170 volumes including incunabula and 16th-century volumes that stood out for their decorated and painted edges (or boards), probably dating to between 1575 and 1590, which were the work of Cesare Vecellio (c. 1521-1601),⁵ second-cousin of the famous Titian. Arranged vertically with the edges facing the viewer, the volumes offered a gallery of images linked to their content, from landscapes to animals, authors and maps. The painted edges of the works in question by Valla show a teacher in his chair, perhaps the humanist himself, speaking to two students seated facing him, with their backs to us. 

Fabrizio Crivello

¹ Garin 1962, pp. V-IX.

² Miari 1843, p. 84.

³ Hobson A. 1958, pp. 34-35.

⁴ G. Grazioli, “La Biblioteca Piloni”, in Conte 2001, pp. 87-94.

⁵ Regarding the painter who was active in the Belluno area, see the contributions in Conte 2001, particularly F. Bellencin, “La decorazione pittorica della Biblioteca Piloni”, pp. 95-123.