Bidspirit auction | FIORENTINO, GIOVANNI.

FIORENTINO, GIOVANNI. - Il Pecorone. “First edition” (see below). Woodcut device at title-page and at colophon. ff. 227. Lightly foxed. Later full vellum. 8vo. “Milan: Giovanni Antonio de gli Antoni 1554” This is the famous counterfeit of the first edition, printed in Lucca in the 1740’s. The original was published in 1558 and was a source for Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.