Albertini, Francesco: Memoriale di molte statue et picture sono nella inclyta cipta di Florentia per mano di sculptori et pictori excellenti moderni et antiqui tracto dalla propria copia di messer Francesco Albertini prete Fiorentino Anno Domini 1510. [Title on front cover:] Il memoriale di Francesco Albertini: Cura Herberti P. Horne.
 
Letchworth, the Florence Press, 1909. 8vo. (21,5 x 15 cms.) 24 pp.
 
One of 500 copies printed on Bachelor hand made paper, 450 of which were for sale. (There were also 12 copies on vellum.)
 
Publisher’s gilt-stamped vellum with cotton ties, top edge gilt, else uncut. Very fine.
 
The first guide book of Florence by Francesco di Santi di Jacopo Albertini (c. 1469-after 1510), despite its brevity one of the most valuable sources about Florentine art prior to Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists. The first edition of 1510 is exceedingly rare; the present facsimile was based on the copy in the Biblioteca Riccardiana, which was considered a unique survival at the time. Apparently two more copies have been located since, in Florence and Venice respectively. A reprint appeared in 1863 and the present beautiful pseudo-facsimile was published in 1909 ”by the care of Herbert P. Horne, in the types designed by him”.
 
Published in 1510, six years after the uncovering of Michelangelo’s David, the ”Memoriale di molte statue et picture” is the first systematic inventory of the artistic treasures of a particular city. It consists of just 16 pages but is the first printed text entirely dedicated to Florentine art.