Vivaldi's Opus regale

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Giovanni Ludovico Vivaldi (died 1540), Opus regale in quo continentur infrascripta opuscula (Regal Work in which are Contained the Following Small Works) … ([Paris]: Venu[n]da[n]tur Parisius i[n] vico Sancti Iacobi sub i[n]tersignio diui Claudij, [1511]). Inscription at foot of title: P[ro] Conventu S.S. Minorum Franciscanorum Pultariensiu[m] (The Franciscans of Pouthières, France). Graphic Arts copy is from the printing collection of Elmer Adler. Graphic Arts Collection (GAX) 2004-3499N

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vivaldi13.jpgParis 1511, metalcut
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Vivaldi, a Domincan monk and professor of theology, wrote these regal works in 1507 and they were first printed at Saluzzo by Giacomo de’ Circhi and Sisto Somasco. The following year, Étienne Gueynard (1460-1530) published a new edition in Lyon. Both are described as illustrated with large woodcuts.

In 1511, a grand third edition (held in the graphic arts collection) was printed by Jean Barbier for the Parisian publisher François Regnault. Rather than woodcuts, the book is decorated with composite metalcuts, up to a dozen small metal plates combined to form each large subject and frame.

vivaldi 1512d.jpgLyon 1512, woodcut

Just one year later, back in Lyon, a fourth edition (also at Princeton) was prepared by Gueynard, once again illustrated with woodcuts. The designs have been attributed to Guillaume Le Roy the younger (1494-1529), son of the printer by the same name who ran the first press in Lyon.

vivaldi15.jpgParis 1511, metal cuts
vivaldi 1512a.jpgLyon 1512, woodcuts
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Giovanni Ludovico Vivaldi (died 1540), Opus regale i[n] quo continentur infrascripta opuscula …([Lyons]: Venundantur Lugduni ab Stephano Gueynard, prope Sanctum Antonium, 1512. Rare Books (Ex) BX890 .V63 1512