‎"BREVIARIUM‎
‎Breviarium Romanum novissime impressum cum annotationibus numerorum in marginibus psalmorum: hymnorum: antiphonarum: & responsiorum: ac etiam capitolorum & hysteoriarum quo libro biblie facillime inneniantur: inveniantur: cum plurimis figuris ornatum. - [POSSIBLY THE ONLY KNOWN COPY OF THIS SPLENDID BREVIARY PRINTED BY A WOMAN]‎

‎(Colophon, p. 416:) (Heirs of) Pietro Ravani (i.e. Luchini Ravani), April 28, 1533. 8vo (17 x 11,5 cm). Lovely contemporary full calf over wooden boards. Three raised bands and blindstamping to spine. Boards with blindstamped triple- and quadruple line-borders and a broad innner ornamental blindstamped border inside which small gilt ornamentations and a small glit centre-piece. Small gilt corner-ornamentations. Remains of clasps to boards. All edges gilt and chisseled. Spine a bit worn. Boards with overall wear, some of the gilding worn off, and a bit of the leather missing at back board, revealing the wood underneath. Inner hinges split, front one still tight. In spite of the wear, still nice and fine. Title-page slightly dusty and a very faint dampstain to lower part of leaves towards the end. One leaf with some smudging. Small wormtract to inner blank margin of ca. 20 leaves, far from affecting text. Three leaves with a small tear to top, no loss. Six leaves of the first quire loosening, but still attached. Overall internally very nice. 17th century ink notes to free end-papers. Pencil-annotation and -collation front end-papers. a(8) + A(8) + 1-52(8) + a-e(8) + ccdd(4) + d-o(8) - i.e.: (16 pp.) + pp. 1-144 (quire 19 missing - has never been bound in) + pp. 153 - 416 (lacking one leaf inbetween - f. 35III. Two leaves are paginated 52) (- the colophon is at the end of p. 416 (=f. 52 (VIII)), the verso of which has a full-page woodcut. The opposing leaf with the corresponding woodcut border is in numbered 425, from which the signatures begin again from a - ) + pp. 425 - 448 + (4 ff.) + pp. 449 - 536. Sevaral folios misnumbered. Lacking nine leaves in all, none of which seem to have ever been bound in. Title-page printed in red and black and with two woodcuts - one being Ravani's printer's mark of the two-tailed mermaid, the other being St. Veronica with the veil. Printed in red and black throughout. Richly illustrated with numerous woodcut illustrations throughout - 19 full-page, 22 broad illustrated and ornamented borders, more than 300 small woodcut illustrations (measuring ca. 3 x 2 cm, many of them repeated, ca. 1/3 are different ones), ca. 20 woodcut initials (measuring ca. 1,6 x 1,6, a couple measuring ca. 2,5 x 2,5 cm). One of the full-page woodcuts is quite weak in the imprint. Several - 23 in all, but many are repeated - of the small woodcut illustrations are signed, most ""S.M."" and ""S.L."" and one ""S.P."" Seven of the full-page woodcuts are signed ""I.A."", ""z.a."" and ""L.A."" respectively. ‎

Reference : 62222

‎Exceedingly scarce - possibly the only copy known -, splendid and beautifully printed, exquisite and richly illustrated breviary of the Roman Rite, printed in Venice, by a woman. The printer Pietro Ravani (named in the colophon) was a native of Brescia. Little is known of him, and his name is usually associated with that of Melchior Sessa, with whom he formed partnership from 1516 until December 1525. Their work was strongly oriented towards religious texts and works dedicated to the world of schools. When he died in 1531, the business was left to his wife Luchina Ravani, who administered it with their son Vittore, until 1540 or 1541. This was not an unusual constellation, but in far most cases, the widows had nothing or very little actively to do with the business they inherited/officially administered. In the case of Luchina Ravani, this is different. We know for a fact that she was actually actively involved in the printing of the books during this period and was a printer in her own right. “Financial considerations often forced a printer’s widow to take over the business, as the death of a husband plunged many widows into poverty. These women would often work until their sons came of age, but in the case of Luchina Ravani, she apparently continued working even after her son took over. The State Archive in Venice holds two documents stating that Luchina was free to run “a suo conto la stamperia.” This indicates that the widow held an important position in the business and possibily had some kind of agency in deciding what to print, like the beautiful Libro del Cortegiano in the Castiglione Collection. However, despite her active role, her name is never explicitly mentioned on any edition. Only her son’s name, Vittore, appears on the titlepages or the colophons, followed by a simple and anonimous “& Co.”. “ (Erika Delbecque: Women in the Italian Book Trade, 2021). The Ravani printer’s mark is the two-tailed mermaid. This presumably comes from the location of the shop, which had the two-tailed mermaid on the façade and was known as the bookshop of the mermaid. “The Venetian shop of the Mermaid was managed throughout almost all the sixteenth century by a series of bookmen from Brescia: Pietro Ravani, the Paganinis, and Giovanni Varisco and his descendants.” (Angela Nuovo: The Book Trade in the Italian Renaissance, 2013, pp. 8-9). The illustration of the other woodcut on the title-page, ""Veronica's Veil"", would have been found in the home of the common man for use in prayer. The idea is related to the use by the wealthy of more expensive paintings or manuscript illustrations. The numerous illustrations in this beautiful breviary are splendid. Several of the small ones are signed (S.M." S. L. and S. P.) and nine of the full-page ones are signed I.A., z.a., and L.A. respectively. These woodcut masters are among the most famous of the Renaissance woodcutters. I.A. is presumably the master of the woodcuts formerly attributed to Andreas Zoan, the master who collaborated with N. on the woodcuts for the 1497 Ovid. According to Kristeller “one has without reason interpreted “ia” as Andrea Zoan” (translated from German. Kristeller p. 139). z.a. is the monogram for the renowned Adrea Zoan (referred to above). Under the same monogram, he made the splendid woodcuts for eg. Petrarca’s Trionfi from 1500 and onwards, the exquisite illustrations for Stagnino’s Dante from 1512, Dürer’s Apokalypse 1515-16, etc.. See Kristeller pp. 145-46 for further details. L.A. is the monogram for the great Lucantonio de’ Uberti, who was responsible for having brought the strongly hatched Venetian style woodengravings from the beginning of the 16th century to Florence. His full name is known from the arithmetic book for merchants, the “Libro d’abacco” printed in Venice in 1520, where his name is mentioned on the last leaf. “This Lucantonio is without doubt also the executor of the numerous woodcuts and engravings signed “LA” that without reason have been attributed to the great printing master Lucantonio Giunta.” (Kristeller p. 164 – translated from German). Lucantonio Uberti originally came from Florence and seems to have come to Venice around 1500. In 1503-4 he printed some books in Verona, in which he called himself “Lucantonius Florentinus”. After that he seems to have been active in Venice as printer, woodcutter and engraver. Later, he returned to Florence and brought with him the Venetian woodcutting technique that he introduced there. See Kristeller pp. 164-6ff. for more on Lucantonio de’ Uberti. Early printed Breviaries were locally distributed and quickly worn out by daily use. As a result, surviving copies are rare of those editions which survive at all, many are known in only very few copies. This magnificent Breviary is of the utmost scarcity. We have not been able to locate a single copy of it anywhere. We have not been able to find it registered in any bibliography, we have not been able to find a single copy listed on OCLC, and we have not been able to trace any copy at auction ever. See: Kristeller, Paul: Kupferstich und Holzschnitt in vier Jahrhunderten. Berlin, 1922.‎