Bidspirit auction | [HISTORY] - Defending Trajan: Antiquarian

[HISTORY] - Defending Trajan: Antiquarian Rarity from Todi - ARGENTI Giovanni Francesco (XVIth-XVIIth century) - (Printed in Todi-Umbria) ARGENTI, Giovanni Francesco (fl. XVI-XVII sec.). Apologie o vero risposte alli discorsi del Sig. Domenico Tempesta, e del Signor Academico Insensato. Fatti intorno alla Patria di Traiano Imperatore. Todi, Cerquetano Cerquetani, 1627. 4to (mm. 199x140). Pp. [12], 67, [1: errata]. Woodcut printer’s device on title, woodcut initials and tailpieces. Contemporary vellum-backed cardboard, inked title on spine (some holes and tears to spine). On the front pastedown 19th-century bookplate “Ex biblioteca P.P. Argenti” of the Greek diplomat, lawyer, and historian Philip Pandeli Argenti (1891-1974), who seems, from other books from his library that have appeared over the years, to have collected anything with a connection to his surname. Aside from very occasional spotting and a small wormhole at head of title (not affecting text), clean and crisp throughout. First edition of this rare piece of seventeenth-century antiquarianism, a study of the relationship with the Umbrian city of Todi with the Emperor Trajan, written in response to the writings of the 16th-century historian Domenico Tempesta by Giovanni Francesco Argenti, whose only published work this appears to be. (1)