1540 BARBARO ON BLUE PAPER 1540 BARBARO ON BLUE PAPER | Page 9

surname, the mystery about the identity of this woman is even more obscure, so it is
not improbable to think this was a pseudonym.
GONZAGA ISABELLA: (?) Considering Ferretta's relations with the Gonzaga court
and her direct friendship with Isabella, as Lando testifies, we can assume that the
volume has subsequently entered the Gonzaga library. This is a pure and simple
supposition, due to the fact that the Gonzaga library was sold in 1708 to Giambattista
Recanati, the next owner of the book;
RECANATI GIAMBATTISTA (1687-1734): bibliophile and art collector, was
located, for culture and social class, within that literary Venetian environment of the
early 18th c., who had in Apostolo Zeno its most valued representative. His reputation
is well-known for collecting manuscripts and printed books that he obtained, as he
himself says, "with great expense and various journeys." Promoter of literary initiatives,
in correspondence with Apostolo Zeno, Ludovico Antonio Muratori and other
literary and artists of his time, he bought the Gonzaga Library in 1708 and donated
his collections of manuscripts to the Marciana library who honored him with an
epigraph (G. Moschini, Venetian literature ... Venice 1806, vol.2 p. 408-418)
However, soon after his death, his collection of printed books was dispersed as
Antonio Francesco Marmi testifies in two letters to Muratori of November 1735 and
February 1736 (vol.35: Quadri ... Ripa cit., P. 410, n.10). APOSTOLO ZENO, in his
Lettere, Venice 1752, mentions the present blue paper copy giving a specific
description “Una copia di questa edizione è appresso il Sig. Ab. Recanati, impressa tutta in
carta di turchino” (a copy of this edition is owned by Mr. Ab. Recanati, printed entirely
on blue paper). This is the first bibliographic quotation of the copy and earliest
mention of a blue paper Aldine ever.
SORANZO GIACOMO (1686-1761): ownership inscription inked on front fly leaf
“1736 di Giaco Soranzo”. Soranzo was Senator of the Venetian Republic, he collected
four thousand manuscripts and twenty thousand printed books. In 1780 the
catalogue of his library was published in Padua “Catalogus librorum qui venales erunt
Patavii”. The Aldine is not present in the sale catalogue, sold by the Soranzo before
that date.
PITTALUGA EMILIO (XXth century): ex-libris on front fly leaf. He was a well-
known collector of incunabula and manuscripts, whose collection was sold in various
private sales during his life. The last selection of his wonderful library was auctioned
by CHRISTIES in 1997 (our book is Lot 8)