NOTE

Rosichino and Pietro da Cortona:a Correction

With Notes on the printer Fabio de Falco

The Short-title catalogue of Italian books 1465-1600 published by the British Museum in 1958has on p. 588 the following entry:

Rosichmo.Uichiarationedellepitturedellasala, , _ , , . . ^ , _ , J^ ^deBarbennt. r.de ralco: Roma. iS70. 8°.

picture of a bee, representing the Barberinifamily arms.

This small tract was unfortunately enteredin the printers' index of the Italian S.T.C. with^^^ date 1570, as being the only recorded pro-^^^^ ^^ ̂ he British Museum's collections of theRoman press of Fabio de Falco. This manifesterror can soon be demonstrated. In the firstplace^ the types, ornaments, and device areentirely consistent with late seventeenth-century style but would be impossible in 1570.

The book is a small pamphlet of only seven Secondly, the painter Pietro Berettini is noneprinted leaves (presumably a blank eighth leaf other than the celebrated Pietro da Cortona,is missing), signed +8 . There is pagination up who lived from 1596 to 1669. Thirdly, Maffeo

to p. 14.The title-page reads: DICHIARATIONE

DELLE I PITTVRE | DELLA SALADE'SIGNORI I BARBERINI. I [device

Barberini was born in 1568, became Pope asUrban VIII in 1623, and died in 1644. ThePalazzo Barberini was begun by Carlo Madernafor Urban VIII in 1624, continued by Bor-romini and completed by Bernini. Pietro daCortona was painting his masterpiece, theenormous vault or ceiling of the central saloneof Palazzo Barberini from about 1633 until hecompleted it in 1637. It therefore becomes

I BARBERINI.

78x66 mm, showing a boy clinging to abanner, with the words *ET VLTRA' and fourbees at the four corners] | IN ROM AAppresso Fabio de Falco MDLXX. | [rule]Con Licenza de Supriore (sic)

On p. 5(sig.+3)theheadingis'ROSICHINO clear that 'Rosichino' (whoever he may haveAGLi SPETTATORT, and the first sentence of been: the name sounds like a nickname) can-the text, printed in italics, reads: 'Come not have written this small work before aboutrhuomo mira le pitture fatte dal Signor Pietro 1638 at the earliest, and that Fabio de FalcoBerettini da Cortona nella volta della sala consequently cannot have printed it in 1570.de'Signori Barberini; cosi comprende ch'elle Perhaps the simple explanation is that a 'c'sono quelle cose, che sopra tutte le altre dilet- was accidentally omitted from the date on thetano gli occhi de' mortali.' On p. 8 is a reference title-page, and that the tract was really printedto the arms ofPope Urban VIII. The last page in 1670. The first edition was no doubt thatof text contains a poem by Luigi Ficieno, and printed in 1640 by Vitale Mascardi, anotherthe last page of the entire tract shows a large Roman printer whose name is far better known

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than that of Fabio de Falco; but the BritishMuseum's copy of this 1640 edition wasdestroyed by enemy action about 1942. Itseems strange that an interval of thirty yearsshould separate the two editions of this veryminor tract, which would have quickly lost itsimmediate interest and relevance after 1640;and yet no date other than 1670 for Fabio deFalco's edition readily suggests itself.

In 1644 Vitale Mascardi and Fabio de Falcoshared the printing of the two-volume editionof Gasparo Alveri, Roma in ogni stato, eachprinting one volume. They evidently had abusiness relationship of some sort.

Fabio de Falco was not a prolific printer,but is firmly documented between at least 1663and 1676. He printed on commission forvarious publishers, including Biagio Diversinoand Felice Cesaretti, Gregorio and GiovanniAndreoli, Giuseppe Corbo or Corvo, andGiacomo Antonio Celsi.

Books printed by Fabio de Falco

1. Augustinus de Angehs, Lectiones meteor-ologicae . . . Editio tertia. Romae, sumpti-bus Iosephi Corbi, 1664. (Colophon:Typis Fabi) de Falchis, 1663.) Containsthe same capital C which is found in theRosichino. B.L. 538.a.ii(3).

2. Gasparo Alveri, Roma in ogni stato. Pt. 2.1664. (Pt. I printed by Vitale Mascardiin the same year. Sold 'alFInsegna diGenoua appresso Giacomo Antonio CelsiLibraro al CoUegio Romano'.) B.L.658.1.14, 15.

3. Baron Ezechiel Spanheim, Dissertatio depraestantia et usu numismatum anti-quorum. Romae, apud Blasium Deuersin,& Felicem Cesarettum; typis Fabij deFalcho. 1664. B.L. X.909/405.

4. Bartolomeo Beverini, Poesie. 1666. AIS2332.' Not in B.L.

5. Famiano Nardini, Roma antica. Roma, peril Falco, 1666. A spese di Biagio Diuersino,e Felice Cesaretti. AlPInsegna della Regina.AIS 4487. B.L. 559*.a.2.

6. Ottavio Falconieri, De nummo ApamensiDeucalionei diluvii typum exhibente dis-sertatio. 1667. AIS 4469. Not in B.L.

7. Joseph Marie Suares, Bishop of Vaison,De numismatis et nummis antiquis dis-sertatio. 1668. B.L. 1489.e.5.

8. Guidubaldo Bonarelli, La Filli di Sciro.Roma, Gregorio, e Gio. Andreoli; 1670.(Colophon: Fabio de Falco, 1670.) AIS4029. Not in B.L.

9. Rosichino, Dichiaratione delle pitture dellasala de'Barberini. 'MDLXX' [1670?]. B.L.

10. Guglielmo Dondini, Historia de rebus inGallia gestis ab Alexandro Farnesio Parmaeet Placentiae duce III, etc. 1676. AIS 475.Not in B.L.

DENNIS E. RHODES

I AIS ^ S. Piantanida, L. Diotallevi and G.Livragbi, Autori Italiani del Seicento, fasc. 1-4(Milano, 1948-51). The last fascicule, which wasto have contained the index of printers, was neverpublished.

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