Giovanni Mazzaferro. The Annotated Specimens of Vasari's 'Lives': an Inventory. Part One

Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro
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Giovanni Mazzaferro
The Annotated Specimens of Vasari's Lives: an Inventory

Part One

An image from the specimen annotated by El Greco (see n. 7)

Other contributions on Giorgio Vasari in this blog

Annotated specimens of Vasari's Lives (both of the Torrentiniana edition, 1550 and the Giuntina one, 1568) have been known for centuries. In recent years, moreover, there has been a real flowering of monographs and essays on individual examples. But there is no inventory to put some order among the many indications from scholars and historians. I am therefore writing this article with the ambition to fill this void, while I am well aware of the limits of my undertaking. First of all - it is clear – I am filling a compilation, as I did not discover new annotated specimens nor did I check the original texts of the notes shown in individual studies. However, I think I can say I found something new, or - better - forgotten, and I tried to give it a new emphasis.

This article is structured in two parts and an appendix: the first part contains general considerations on the "literature of the notations" and the interpreter's difficulty to give them a meaning; the second section contains the actual inventory, with the respective bibliographical references. In the appendix are displayed the notes of Federico Zuccari, which Gaetano Milanesi attributed to the artist, claiming to have taken them from a sample of the Giuntina, which was "already owned by the Chevalier Alessandro Saracini in Siena" [1]. The examination of the Milanesi correspondence (as we shall see below) also confirms the existence of the volume. The specimen, now, is however lost, so that a first element of confusion concerns precisely the number of copies of the Giuntina, which were annotated by Zuccari. Normally, it is said that they were two (one kept in Paris and one owned by El Greco and preserved today in Spain), while in fact there are three. I simply connected the indications provided by Milanesi and spread along his Vasari comments. Of course, one can discuss at length as to their reliability and their paternity. Milanesi, however, seems to me to be of such a quality as scholar to be trusted.

The individual editions mentioned in the Inventory will be then subject of subsequent reviews that are going to be posted separately on this blog.

The Frontispiece of the Lives (Giuntina edition, 1568)

Limits of the inquiry

As regards the limits of the research, I decided to stick to the criteria followed by Ms Maddalena Spagnolo, in her essay Considerazioni in margine: le postille alle Vite di Vasari (Margin Notes: the Annotations to Vasari's Lives) [2], undoubtedly the best attempt to arrive at an overall arrangement on this issue. I took into account only the annotations attached to the Torrentiniana (1550) and Giuntina (1568) editions; I also excluded all those cases in which the "margin notes" were not really indications at the margin of the work, but corrections, additions and statements in part contained in separate manuscripts [3]. I also omitted the situations in which specimens of the Lives were used for the "proofreading" by Vasari’s entourage. Marco Ruffini mentioned one of them, as an example, in his essay dedicated to the notes of an anonymous Paduan around 1563 [4]. Instead, I also included quotes from the annotated specimens of the Lives which are currently lost (it is the case of the notes of Zuccari reported by Milanesi). Are excluded, finally, all the footnotes to subsequent editions. For this reason only – to be precise – I did not include the (lost) specimen of the Lives displaying the notes of a Venetian note taker in the mid-eighteenth century, reported by Otto Kurz in the update of the Art Literature by Schlosser and again cited by Maddalena Spagnolo in her essay [5]. The examination of the text in question has allowed me to recognise that the notes were affixed to a Manolessi edition of 1647 [6].

Self-portrait of Giorgio Vasari (Giuntina edition)

Margin notes as a literary genre: heterogeneity of materials and studies dedicated to them

The first thing that becomes evident, when considering the annotated copies, is the heterogeneity of the materials which one is facing. There are cases (for example that of Francisco de Hollanda) where there were only four notes; in others, the notes are rather dense and indicate a long and exhausting ‘fight’ with Vasari's text.

Can we speak of margin notes as a 'literary genre' in its own right? Undoubtedly, one must use great caution. And yet, it seems logical to highlight those which can be considered the common features to most of the specimens.

First, the notes testify the study of Vasari's text and the assessment of the same. Thus, they emphasize the importance of the text, both for those who only affixed simple emphases in some passages, subjectively considered important, as well as for those who did not miss any single opportunity to argue with the Arezzo-born writer. Another element that characterizes all copies, and which emphasizes that the Lives were primarily a text of study, is the fact that the notes only concerned portions of the work: either individual lives or groups of biographies, on which the note taker had focused its attention. It seems clear, in fact, that the reader has consulted the work in those sections which he needed, without reading it all in full (after all, I believe that even today the number of those who read Vasari's text from beginning to end is absolutely scarce). Of course, one can say (like for example did Giovanna Perini in reference to the biography of Correggio, in the sample annotated by Annibale Carracci [7]) that the absence of footnotes is to be interpreted as sign that the reader basically agreed with the writer (all us, by nature, tend to make a note or to affix a bold graphic sign when we read something that disturbs us. We are much less willing to do so, if our views are identical to those of the author). However, I am inclined more to think that the sections without annotations were not read. If I have to go back to my personal experience, I am reminded that, in the face of very important passages, I am always affixing marks. I would think that such situation would have occurred even in the annotated specimens.

Here, unfortunately, a second source of doubt intervenes (to increase the already congenital heterogeneity of our pieces of evidence): the scholars listed in the inventory below used absolutely different criteria to comment on individual annotated specimens. There are those who merely mentioned the most important phrases, those who transcribed them, however without giving account of any underlining or other graphic signs, and others again who run such an analytical review to write hundreds of pages (see the case of Lucia Collavo, which divided the annotations of Scamozzi into three groups: signs of the topics of interest, writings supplementing the printed text and memoirs of the experiences of the architect from Vicenza [8]). In short, a uniform approach to this study was lacking, and this does not favour the issuance of a holistic judgment. I will not fail to point out the most critical issues from time to time.

One of the normally mentioned elements, when speaking of the annotated specimens, is the tone of open dispute that the various note takers show against Vasari. This tone can range up to real insults, and certainly are famous (and fun) the passages in which Annibale Carracci apostrophized Giorgio Vasari exclaiming "what a cockface!" or the "jerk" with which Lelio Guidiccioni paid homage to him when he expressed a limiting judgment on Dosso Dossi. Moreover, the greater freedom that can be used in the margin notes (which remain a private document, except as we shall see below) is undoubtedly also a characteristic feature of this literature. Almost all (but not all) note takers showed bitterness against Vasari for his pro-Tuscan approach of the Lives; the margin notes would then be the way of expressing disagreement by those who contested his approach based on the combined primacy of Tuscany / design. There is no doubt that this was so, but personally I would try not to do all the same brush. There were commentators, for example, (one is the Florentine Francesco Bocchi) that, while not sharing Vasari's standpoint, demonstrated to read the Lives as a opportunity of study and cultural growth and perhaps to prepare counterarguments, which were however not spelled out.

Portrait of Leon Battista Alberti (Giuntina edition)

The margin notes of Federico Zuccari and Annibale Carracci: a common origin?

There is no doubt that, among the examples reported in the inventory, a particularly important role was played by the three attributed to Federico Zuccari and by the one credited to Annibale Carracci. The question is: Is it possible to establish a link between Zuccari’s and Carracci’s notes (beyond the common complaints against Vasari’s theses)? I got the idea (which at first seemed to me completely preposterous) from a very feeble clue. First, it is necessary to explain that, according to Mario Fanti, who has been the first to transcribed Carracci’s notes, they were actually a set of records belonging to six or seven different people "but all assignable to the late XVI or the beginning of XVII century" [9]. Also Giovanna Perini shared this view [10] but chose to simply publish only the notes of Annibale, as opposed to Fanti who provided all of them. Among the notes which have not been handwritten by Annibale there are two (among others, omitted by Bodmer [11]), which simply consist of the cryptic expression "Mente per la gola” (He is a liar); among those attributed to Zuccari and cited by Milanesi in his edition of the Lives there is an identical "Mente per la gola” (cfr. Appendix infra p. 94 n. 2).

Now, I am not saying that Zuccari was one of the six or seven people who wrote notes on the Carracci sample: the expression was commonly used at the time [12], with the caveat, however, that, if the currently lost Zuccari edition was ever retrieved, I would recommend making a calligraphic comparison. I am trying rather to get to a thesis that only Giovanna Perini seems to have taken into account, in my view: "Some writings look like [...] of a more "calligraphic” hand than the one of Annibale; but above all they have a more "chancery" style, rather typical of the sixteenth century, and possibly more literate. Perhaps Annibale continued the marginal comments already undertaken by someone else. In short, he purchased a used copy owned by some resolute anti-vasarian, and like others after him, he added his personal 'technical' opinion." [13]. A fact is indisputable: if the people involved in the notation of the Carracci specimen are seven, and if we are abandoning the dogma that the first to take the initiative was Annibale, there are six chances out of seven (85%) than another person started drafting the notes on the volume.

Who introduced the custom of noting more than one copy of the Lives, basically for self-promotional purposes, and where? The answer is simple: Federico Zuccari in Rome.

If we take into consideration two of the three annotated copies by Zuccari (I acknowledge that I have not yet been able to see the one today preserved in Madrid, which belonged to El Greco) there is an element that is immediately striking: the notes of the Italian artist in the Parisian sample (see Inventory sample 8) are thirty-six; those of the volumes reported by Milanesi (provided he transcribed all of them) are forty-three (cf.. Inventory sample 17). There is only one note in common (although there is overlap in the Lives which are subject of study in both).

The question I ask myself is: if the same author includes notes at different times in three different Giuntine, with an overlapping of subjects discussed, would it not be more likely that he would repeat a few notes? In my opinion, yes. And I draw the consequence that, apparently for reasons unknown to us, the notes were made more or less together, and in any case when the author had the specimens on hand [14]. It is therefore possible (in my opinion) that Zuccari had really inaugurated a literary genre for self-promotional purposes; that the annotations have been affixed more or less in the years immediately preceding or following his appointment as first Prince of the Academy of St. Luke (1593). And here I am developing an intuition (far more authoritative than mine) by Giovanna Perini. I think Annibale came to Rome, learnt about the existence of that genre, purchased an annotated copy and annotated it with considerations that would at first glance seem to many as coinciding with those of Zuccari, but actually represented a move away both from Vasari as well as from the late mannerism of Zuccari: for Annibale "to read and reflect on the third volume of the Lives meant meditating on the main terms, or at least on the roots, of the contemporary artistic debate; it was an activity... that was to take on a completely different urgency in that pompous and foolish Rome when he had just arrived and, less than two years before of his arrival, the arch-academic Accademia di San Luca had been created, chaired by Zuccari, the real stronghold of mannerism or, to put it in terms of Annibale, of the Michelangiolisti, the followers of Michelangelo" [15].

Portrait of Ercole de' Roberti (Giuntina edition)

Margin notes: a chronologically delimited phenomenon?

In her essay, Maddalena Spagnolo [16] pointed out that, although we cannot accurately indicate the years of compilation, the annotations to Vasari's Lives appear roughly demarcated within a chronological framework which ends around 1620. It is worth quoting a passage of the authoress: "It is no coincidence that most of the notations that we know belonged to a period between the publication of the Giuntina until the second decade of the seventeenth century; this was notably a time in which art literature was experimenting with an alternative approach to Vasari’s biographical criterion, trying to organize the news according to specific geographical and stylistic considerations. In this sense, the short poem of Gigli [17], the Considerazioni (Considerations) by Mancini as well as, albeit in different ways, the fragment of treaty by Agucchi reveal, albeit at various levels, a similar aspiration to overcome the model proposed by Vasari. One of the characteristics of these and other texts produced around the second decade of the seventeenth century is the adherence to the contemporary artistic reality. [... After 1620] it goes without saying that the books of Vasari began to attract less interest and were not very suitable to just understand the contemporary artistic phenomena. [...] The distance from Vasari's world was too big and the direction taken by art in the first half of the seventeenth century required an update of criteria and values that made sometimes even superfluous to analyse the system of judgment proposed by Vasari."

In principle, I agree completely. But I believe that this argument, as usual, should not be taken as a dogma and other factors should be taken into account too. One, admittedly very prosaic, element is the very low volume (and high price) of copies of the Giuntina edition, which becomes an all the more important fact the most we are penetrating in the seventeenth century. Basically, those who owned a copy of Vasari, kept it nicely tight at home; and those who wanted to purchase one had great difficulty to obtain it. This explains, after all, the publication of the third edition of the Lives, i.e. the Bolognese Manolessi edition of 1647, which not coincidentally was very successful. Malvasia (who had some grievance with Vasari and showed evidently his anger in his Felsina Pittrice) worked starting from the Manolessi edition and chose to transcribe large passages of it in his preparatory papers, instead of writing notations on it. The anonymous mid-eighteenth century Venetian, whom we have cited above, also made notes on the Manolessi edition. On the other hand, we cannot forget other situations (such as those of Del Migliore) where, instead of affixing marginal notes, it was preferred to draft separate manuscripts containing corrections and additions. And, last but not least, I need to quote the entirely unique case of Father Sebastiano Resta (born in 1653) who also densely noted the 1550 Torrentiniana edition of the Lives. It is very true that, over the years, the prospect became more and more "historical", and new interests motivated the study of the work, first of by all those who developed colletionistic interests  (and Father Resta was the prototype for it).

Portrait of Pontormo (Giuntina edition)

Torrentiniana vs. Giuntina

In her essay on Vasari annotations, Maddalena Spagnolo also wrote: "In almost all cases, annotations concern not the Torrentiniana but the Giuntina issue" [18]. She added (quite correctly) that this fact was no doubt due to the much higher circulation of the Giuntina (1568) compared to the Torrentiniana. I would just add that in the inventory are listed seventeen annotated specimens: in seven cases it was a Torrentiniana, and in ten a Giuntina. Considering the diversity of availability of the two specimens, I would like to confirm that one cannot speak of an "immediate misfortune" of the Torrentiniana compared to the Giuntina. If anything, this "misfortune" materialised at different times, on grounds that it is not our job to investigate [19].

ANNOTATED SPECIMENS OF VASARI'S LIVES: AN INVENTORY

Note: In reviewing the annotated specimens (as it was impossible to provide a precise chronological order), I chose to proceed by alphabetical order of the author. As known, there are cases in which the same volume of the Lives was noted by several authors. For this reason (for example in the case of El Greco, Tristan and Zuccari) there may be repetitions in the numbering of the specimens.

[Sample 1]
Anonymous

Commented edition: Giuntina
Preserved at: Missing

References: Le opere di Giorgio Vasari, con nuove annotazioni e commenti di Gaetano Milanesi. (Works by Giorgio Vasari, with new annotations and comments by Gaetano Milanesi). Facsimile reprint of the 1906 publication by Sansoni, with an introduction by Paola Barocchi, Sansoni 1973.

Notes:

The only quotation I know is contained in the edition Vasari-Milanesi, where (vol. VII, p. 569 n. 1), in the life of Giulio Clovio, one has the opportunity to read: "From a handwritten note in an sample of Vasari’s Giuntina edition (Volume III, p. 854), owned by the Marquis Luca Bourbon del Monte, you have more precisely the date of the death of Don Giulio. It says: obiit Romae 5 januarii 1578 summus minio pingendi artifex, sepultus in aede Sancti Petri in Vincula.(Supreme artist in miniature painting, he died in Rome, 5 January 1578, and was buried in the church of St. Peter in Chains)." The Bourbon del Monte is one of the oldest aristocratic families of Florence.

[Sample 19]

Anonymous of the Marciana Library
[Added on July 18, 2016]

Commented edition: Giuntina
Preserved at: Marciana Library in Venice, mark 45-D44
Bibliographic References: http://marciana.venezia.sbn.it/immagini-possessori/963-non-identificati

Notes:

The three volumes of Vasari's Lives in the Giuntina edition stored in the Marciana Library with signatures ranging from 45-D42 to D44 belonged to the library of the Venetian erudite Apostolo Zeno (1668-1750) and carry his cryptogram. However, it is certain that the annotations, which concern only the third volume, i.e. the one marked D44, were not from him. In fact, they appear as substantially contemporaneous with the publication of the text, and in any event are not related to the end of '600 / early' 700. It also appears very likely that the anonymous annotator was not Venetian, for at least three reasons: none of the notes appears polemical against Vasari, which would have been typical of the Venetian world because of the opposition between "colour" and "design"; there are no Venetian worlds whatsoever; the focus of the interests of the annotator is twofold: the "antique" contained in the letter of Giambattista Adriani and the Tuscan-Roman artists (the latter with some intrusion in the area of the Lombard artists). No note concerns Venetian artifices.

In my view, the annotations of the anonymous of the Marciana clearly were study notes. Very rare (see them) are the cases where he added more information to the text. The annotations are written with brown ink, in some cases quite washed out because of the time, and they are beautiful, elegant, and visually pleasing, especially because accompanied by particularly charming graphic signs and designs. I would like to mention an extremely beautiful drawing of a quarter moon, from whose lower vertex departs a serpentine line, actually marking the whole page 996. It is of course not a coincidence. This annotation (which is also the most beautiful) highlights one of the most famous passages of the work, one in which Vasari explains the genesis of the entire work, whose idea would have been born at a dinner in Palazzo Farnese with various guests including Paolo Giovio, who would have inspired him to undertake the project (in 1546). 

Marciana Library in Venice, Vasari's Lives (Giuntina Edition, 1568)
45 D44, p. 996 annotation
Source: http://marciana.venezia.sbn.it/immagini-possessori/963-non-identificati

The annotations serve therefore almost exclusively as a reminder. It is hard to say whether they were most useful to the one who wrote or drew them (and really, his drawing skills delight the eye) or to future readers (one might think of a tutor of some young-aged nobles). Unfortunately, I must also point out that a late binding (as often happens) has caused a mutilation of the notes, in such a way as to make them difficult to read.

Among others, the annotations point to the particular interest of the annotator for the iconographic program of the Villa Farnese in Caprarola, realized by Annibale Caro and described by the same in a letter that Vasari inserted into the life of Taddeo Zuccari. The whole text of Caro’s letter has been systematically annotated. Further up, the biography of Michelangelo is full of graphic signs. As I cannot explain them at length for reasons of space, I would like to note that, by clicking here, the reader can see most of the notations on the website of the Marciana Library.

Marciana Library in Venice, Vasari's Lives (Giuntina edition, 1568)
45 D44, p. 707 annotation
Source: http://marciana.venezia.sbn.it/immagini-possessori/963-non-identificati

There are three footnotes in which the author seems to add a personal contribution. Let's consider them individually:

• At page 557 (in the Life dedicated to Benvenuto Garofalo, but also to artists from Emilia and Lombardy) Vasari writes about Prospero Clementi, saying that he's from Modena. The annotator corrects writing (in a right way) that he was born in Reggio Emilia.
• At page 558, still within the same biography, but this time talking about the artists from Mantua, Vasari cites a certain Giovan Battista Mantovano, engraver of prints, who had three children, including a daughter, called Diana, who "also carved some marvellous prints which I also own some." The annotator noted in the right margin "Be careful of an engraving woman named Diana, of which I have [note of the editor: it could also be: he has] some charts in Rome." Diana Mantovana, in effect, moved to Rome around 1575 after the wedding with Francesco da Volterra and enjoyed here a good reputation.
• At page 564, once again in the "collective" biography of Garofalo, Vasari cites Lattanzio Gambaro (or Gambara, as he is called today) as the best contemporary painter from Brescia. The annotator added: "Many beautiful works of this Lattanzio are held in the Cathedral of Parma. The Life of Christ and the Passion", thus signalling the presence of the artist's frescoes in Parma painted between 1567 and 1573, which of course do not appear in the Giuntina (published in 1568 and updated for Parma until 1566).

Without permitting us to disclose the name of the note taker, the three footnotes in question, however, reveal the profile of a man who was very informed on the Farnese world, both on the young Duchy of Parma as well as for what concerns the Roman court of the powerful family. Hence the attention to the Villa di Caprarola and, in fact, to all that group of artists who were able to attend the Palazzo Farnese rooms and to enjoy the patronage of the family. It is likely that the name of the anonymous annotator should be sought in this entourage. I hope that the publication of the notations on the Internet can quickly lead to the recognition of his calligraphy. 

[Sample 2]
French Anonymous

Commented edition: Torrentiniana
Preserved at: Missing (Corsiniana Library, Rome?)
References: Angelo Comolli, Bibliografia storico-critica dell’architettura civile e arti subalterne, (Historical and critical bibliography of civil architecture and subaltern arts), Rome, 1788-1792 (facsimile edition consulted: Labor 1964-1965).

Notes:

On page 6 of the second volume of his bibliography, Angelo Comolli wrote, speaking of the Torrentiniana editions of the Lives: "Of this rare edition, remarkable also for its beauty and printing sharpness, you have another fine example in this Corsiniana Library, which besides the usual rarity also reveals a few handwritten French notes in many places, but especially commenting the lives of Antonio Filarete (Vol. I p. 357) and Giulio Romano (vol. II p. 882). But these hand-written notes, which are drafted minutely and confusedly, are not as intelligible as those that you have in another imperfect copy which possesses this Imperiali Library. They are written by the Roman painter Gaspare Celio, Chevalier of the Order of Christ, who flourished towards the end of the sixteenth century, who owned the same specimen." The specimen is currently lost. From Comolli’s notes, it is evident that it was a complete Torrentiniana, annotated in both volumes. There is no possibility of confusion with another copy possessed by Girolamo Mancini and now preserved in the Corsiniana Library (see example 13) because in the latter case we are talking about a Giuntina. On the notes by Celio see examplary 6.

[Sample 18]
Anonymous of the Pregliasco Antiquarian Bookstore
[This sample was added on June 27, 2016]

Commented edition: Giuntina

Preserved at: Missing
References: see reference card of the bookshop

Notes:

This is the text of the card (bolds are mine):

"3 parts in 3 volumes, 4° (238 x 158mm). Letterpress titles with woodcut borders. 145 woodcut portraits of artists within alegorical border blocks with letterpress captions [letterpress cancellans caption slip on III/ii 3R4r] after Vasari [?by Cristoforo Coriolano or Cristoforo Chrieger], including one repeat of Vasari's and 8 borders with blank cartouches. Allegorical woodcut of the awakening of the souls of dead artists within a border block on verso of I/i-ii title repeated on III/ii/6H3v. Woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials, including tailpiece on I/i-ii/3V2v. Woodcut printer's device on III/i title, III/i/2Av, III/ii/6H3r. One portrait partially coloured in an early hand, portraits added in pen-and-ink to blank cartouches on I/i-ii/2B1r, 2F2v and III/i/b4v, marginal pen-and-ink copy of the Salviati portrait on III/ii/4K1r, most portraits and some tailpieces hatched and/or decorated with pen-and-ink by an early hand, Final line of text on I/i-ii/K4v stamped in, manuscript corrections of 'Fiorentinore' on I/i-ii/2T3r and 'gratioso' on III/ii/5Y3r. (Occasional light spotting or marking, light dampstaining causing small marginal losses on a few leaves, pt I title slightly frayed at edges, pt III/ii title trimmed touching border, lacking final blank III/ii/6H4.) 18th-century English calf gilt, boards with blind scallop and fleurs-de-lys rolls within double gilt rules, gilt board edges, spines gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-pieces in one, others decorated with clusters of acorn tools and fleuron cornerpieces, red edges (scuffed and rubbed causing minor losses, splitting on joints causing small losses). 

Provenance: d'Ap[--] M[--]gini of Florence (early, crossed-through ownership inscription on title of I/i-ii) -- extensive late 16th-/early 17-century manuscript annotations in Italian -- Hon. Charles Hamilton (c.1704-1786, bookplates)."

The present copy is distinguished by the addition of four pen-and-ink sketches of artists by a skilled, contemporary Florentine hand, and extensive annotations to the text, demonstrating a familiarity with the subject matter in the corrections and additions made."

The annotations amend the text or add new pieces of information about the works seen by the note taker, when and where he saw them. Particulary detailed the annotations about Brunelleschi (vol. I pp. 318-320) and on Marcantonio Raimondi and his relationship with Dürer.

Portrait of Charles Hamilton, called 'The Honourable"
Source: http://general-southerner.blogspot.it/2013/05/painshill-park-surrey.html

The bookseller’s card only provides information about one portion of the life of the specimen. 

Charles Hamilton (1704-1786), belonging to the family of the Counts of Abercorn, was not known above all as a member of the Irish Parliament from 1727 to 1760, but mainly because he set up one of the most famous landscape garden of England, the Painshill estate in Surrey. From the information that can be traced on the Internet it seems that Hamilton made the Grand Tour to Italy between 1725 and 1727, coming back with a rich collection of antiques. It seems logical to assume that, on the occasion of the Italian trip, he also purchased the sample of the Giuntina, which contains his bookplate and was later on transferred to the Pregliasco Library, following a path we do not know. Hamilton encountered very soon financial problems, also in relation to the enormous expenses linked to the maintenance of the Painshill park. In 1766 he was forced to mortgage the park to the famous banker Henry Hoare (the Hoare Bank is still a fully functioning private bank) and in 1771 he had to sell it eventually. The fate of the sample owned by Hamilton is obviously unknown. A very tentative hypothesis (which does not however explain how the books came back in Italy) is that the copy in the hands of Hamilton was passed to the Hoare family. A Giuntina edition is precisely remembered on page 636 of the Catalogue of the Library Hoare at Stourhead, without further indications. The catalogue was compiled and printed for private use in 1840 by John Bowyer Nichols and related to the collection of books by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, descendant of Henry.

Equally unsatisfying is the search for the possible author of the annotations, generically referred to as a contemporary in the bibliographic record. If we accept the hypothesis that Hamilton has bought the work during his Grand Tour (1725-1727) it follows that "Ap [..] M [..] gini, of Florence" must have drafted the notes before. One can easy assume that the author, if not an artist, was at least a scholar. That's all. An index of names  in the Lives of Gabburri (written between 1730 and 1740 and, by their true nature, a very complete list of also minor artists) has been produced by a group of scholars and is now available online on the Memofonte site, but does not include similar names. An entirely unproven hypothesis, which could be kept in mind, is that the correct reading of the name is " An[..] M[..]ni of Florence" and in that case one would think immediately of Annibale Mancini from Florence, who drafted in early 1600 important footnotes in an exemplary of the Corsiniana Library (see example 13).

Of course, the identification of the current ownership and location of the work would help shading light on the matter.

[Sample 3]

Padua Anonymous from the circles of Domenico Campagnola

Commented edition: Torrentiniana
Preserved at: Beinecke Library at Yale University, mark 1987 441 1.
References: Marco Ruffini, Sixteenth-Century Paduan Annotations to the First Edition of Vasari’s Vite (1550) in Renaissance Quarterly 62 (2009), pp. 748-808.

Notes:

The notes concern only the first volume of the Torrentiniana. In fact, they were produced by two different people, both Venetian and most likely from Padua. Certainly, the most important personality was that of the first annotator, whose notes - from internal evidence – were written around 1560-1565, so before the publication of the Giuntina edition of the Lives. The second note taker, whose actions are rather small, produced his words certainly after 1581. The footnotes of the first note taker often refer to what was done or said by the Paduan painter Domenico Campagnola, which seems to be the main source of the information added to margin.

I am thanking the author, who sent me a copy of the essay.

[Sample 21]
Anonymous of the Copy Owned by Taddeo Pepoli
Preserved at: Private collection
Reference: Giovanni Mazzaferro.  Vasari's Lives: a Copy Belonged to Taddeo Pepoli with XVII-Century Marginal Annotations

[Sample 4]
Bocchi, Francesco

Commented edition: Giuntina
Preserved at: Marucelliana Library, Florence, mark R.e.66.

References: Eliana Carrara, Un esemplare delle Vite di Vasari postillato da Francesco Bocchi (Firenze, Biblioteca Marucelliana, R.e.66) in Varchi e altro Rinascimento. Studi offerti a Vanni Bramanti [A copy of Vasari's Lives annotated by Francesco Bocchi (Florence, Marucelliana Library, R.e.66) in Varchi and another Renaissance. Studies offered to Vanni Bramanti], edited by Salvatore Lo Re and Franco Tomasi, Manziana (Rome), Vecchiarelli publisher, 2014.

Notes:

The records are concentrated almost exclusively in the first volume and are assigned by the author to Francesco Bocchi (1548-1613 or 1618), on the basis of an analysis of the calligraphy. Bocchi was the author of the Eccellenza del San Giorgio di Donatello (Excellence of the Saint George by Donatello) (1584) and the Bellezze della città di Firenze (The beauties of the city of Florence) (1591). In both volumes also appear other essentially coeval or slightly later annotations, attributable to different hands. The first and third volumes certainly came from the Convent of the Basilica of the Most Holy Annunciation; the same cannot be said however for the second volume. There are no assumptions about the date, but - from the general tone of the comments - it seems logical that the annotations preceded the drafting of at least the art guide of Florence.

[Sample 5]
Carracci, Annibale

Commented edition: Giuntina
Preserved at: Archiginnasio Municipal Library, Bologna, mark ms. B 4222-4224.

References: Heinrich Bodmer, Le note marginali di Agostino Carracci nell’edizione del Vasari del 1568 (The margin notes of Agostino Carracci in Vasari’s 1568 edition), in Il Vasari, X (1939), pp. 89-128; Mario Fanti, Le postille carraccesche alle «Vite» del Vasari: il testo originale (Carracci’s notes to the «Lives» by Vasari: the original text), in Il Carrobbio, V, 1979, pp. 148-164; Mario Fanti, Ancora sulle postille carraccesche alle «Vite» del Vasari (Again on Carracci’s notes to the «Lives» by Vasari) in Il Carrobbio, VI, 1980, pp. 136-141; Charles Dempsey, The Carracci Postille to Vasari’s Lives in The Art Bulletin, LXVIII, 1986, pp. 72-76; Giovanna Perini. Gli scritti dei Carracci, (The writings of the Carraccis), Bologna, Nuova Alfa Publishing, 1990; Daniele Benati, Le “postille” di Annibale Carracci al terzo tomo delle Vite di Giorgio Vasari  (The "notes" by Annibale Carracci to the third volume of Giorgio Vasari's Lives) in Annibale Carracci, exhibition catalogue (Bologna-Roma 2006-2007), edited by Daniele Benati and Eugenio Riccomini, Milan, Electa, 2006.

Notes:

Those of Annibale Carracci are, without doubt, the most famous annotations to Vasari's Lives. Their success is evidenced by the mention in the main text of the art literature that dealt with the Carraccis. A note is, for example, reported by Bellori in his Lives (1672) and by Malvasia in Felsina Pittrice (1678). Bellori attributed its authorship (correctly) to Annibale, Malvasia to Agostino, following an attributive stream which must have developed very soon. This is testified by the copy of Giuntina annotated by Annibale Mancini (see Examplary 13) which (on an unspecified date, but in the early decades of the seventeenth century) copied some of Carracci’s notes on the specimen in his possession, attributing them to Agostino [20]. Lost for long time, the Carracci’s annotations were transmitted through two manuscripts indicated as from the XVI or XVIII century, the Chigiano Code G.III.66 of the Vatican Apostolic Library and the C.IV.28 Code of Siena Municipal Library, until the original volumes were found in 1972, and then donated to Bologna Archiginnasio Library (1978). The annotations were transcribed by Mario Fanti between 1979 and 1980. It was found that the three volumes were a real palimpsest, on which six or seven different people had placed their records. Among these, it was possible to attribute most of them to Annibale, based on a calligraphic examination. Previously, since it was not possible to distinguish the different hands, all annotations were assigned to the Carraccis (and in particular to Agostino) by referring to the copies of the above mentioned codes. The problem of identifying the other (however minor) note takers is far from being solved. Totally uncertain, moreover, is also the dating of Carracci’s footnotes. Maddalena Spagnolo believed that the records were pencilled by a young Annibale just returned from the Venice trip (then around 1582-83) [21], while Giovanna Perini instead dated them to a period when Annibale has already arrived in Rome in the autumn of 1595, probably shortly after his transfer from Bologna.

In his Felsina pittrice, Malvasia provided some elements on the history of the collectors of the sample, saying it first belonged to the Ludovisi family, then to the painter Giuseppe Carlo Aloisi, son of Baldassarre, said Galanino, and finally to Giovanni Francesco Grimaldi, who would allowed to consult it [22]. The copy made by Annibale Mancini (see sample 12) should go back to the years when the annotations still belonged to Cardinal Ludovisi.

[Sample 6]

Celio, Gaspare

Commented edition: Torrentiniana
Preserved at: National Library of Florence, Fondo Palatino, mark (11).C.7.2.2

References: Nicoletta Lepri, Annotazioni di Gaspare Celio a un volume della Torrentiniana (Gaspare Celio’s Remarks at a volume of the Torrentiniana) in Arezzo e Vasari. Vite e Postille (Arezzo and Vasari. Lives and Annotations) (p. 343-379).

Notes:

It is the copy that Comolli (see notes to sample 2) indicated as incomplete and belonging to the Imperiali Library. Comolli’s quotation is important because it testified that the incompleteness of the work (we only have the first volume) dates back to the time before the Imperiali Library was put on sale between 1793 and 1796, and the work in question was acquired by Ferdinand of Lorena. The title page includes the words “This book is owned by Gaspare Celio, of the Order of Roman Christ, painter, 1598". This confirms that the owner as well as the note taker of the work was Gaspare Celio (1571-1640), a Roman painter, best known for publishing the Memorie delli nomi dell’artefici delle pitture, che sono in alcune chiese, facciate, e palazzi di Roma (Memoirs of the names of the artifices of the paintings, which are in some churches, facades and buildings in Rome) (1638). Nicoletta Lepri pointed out that the date that appears on the title page is probably the one when Celio came into possession of the work and all words were added much later, since Celio acquired the title of Knight of the Order of Roman Christ in 1613. Several notes, then, are dated and indicate the years 1622, 1623, 1636 and 1637, so as to suggest a double reading of the text, roughly at a distance of fifteen years. In the essay La vita delle «Vite» vasariane (The Life of Vasari’s "Lives") [23], Carlo Maria Simonetti stated that he has identified a second copy of the work by Vasari (this time a Giuntina) owned and annotated by Celio, kept in Rome at the Corsiniana Library. The attribution to Celio is honestly based on a bit weak arguments: in essence, it is based on the claim that the painter would have drawn a self-portrait at the end of the first volume of the third part. Already Nicoletta Lepri refused the attribution, stating that, in reality, the figure in question is a Roman legionnaire. Eliana Carrara, then, finally solved the issue, showing that the volumes of Giuntina in question belonged to Annibale Mancini (see examplary 13).

[Sample 20]

Díaz del Valle, Lázaro

[Added on July 18, 2016]

Commented edition: Giuntina

Preserved at: Bridwell Library at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, mark BRA0811

Bibliographic references: Lisa Pon, A Note on Lázaro Díaz del Valle and Raphael’s Spasimo di Sicilia in Spain in Boletín del Museo del Prado 19(47), 2011, pp. 97-103; Lisa Pon, Rewriting Vasari in The Ashgate Research Companion to Giorgio Vasari, edited by David J. Cast, Ashgate Publishing, 2014, pp. 261-275

Notes:

The three volumes of Vasari's Lives preserved in Dallas at the Bridwell Library display various margin notes, which have been studied by Lisa Pon. In his essay of 2011, the author questioned the common origin of the first two volumes and the third one. The latter shows a mark of ownership by the Capuchin Monastery of Patience in Madrid, founded in 1639. In this volume a few insignificant notes of three different hands can be found. The first hand reports, in Italian or - more likely according Ms. Pon - in Spanish, the works cited in the Lives that the note taker was able to see himself; literally, the margin notes read "visto (seen)", for example at some Titian works. A second hand is less in control of the Italian language, points out some of the terms and translates them on the side lines in Spanish. The third hand indicates some fundamental articulations of the Lives (such as the death of Michelangelo). But what draw the author's attention are the annotations to the second volume, and in particular some margin notes which – on the basis of calligraphic equivalence (see photos posted in the essay of 2011) – are referred by Ms Pon to Lázaro Díaz del Valle, member of the royal chapel and court chronicler. Among many other manuscripts, he was the author of a text entitled Origen y Yllustracion del Nobilísimo y Real Arte de la Pintura y Dibuxo (Origin and illustration of the most noble and royal art of painting and drawing) which was the subject of a critical edition in 2008 by David Garcia Lopez. The most significant margin script is the one where Lázaro signalled the exact position where, in November 1661, was located the celebrated Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary (the so-called Spasimo di Sicilia) by Raphael (and aid). The panel arrived from Palermo, and was surrounded by the legend of being miraculous. Indeed, it is also clear from the structure of the above mentioned manuscript by Díaz del Valle that he had got to read the Lives.

[Sample 7]
El Greco

Commented edition: Giuntina
Preserved at: National Library of Spain

References: Xavier de Salas, Las notas del Greco a la “Vida de Tiziano”, de Vasari (The notes by El Greco to the "Life of Titian" by Vasari) in Studies in the History of Art, Vol 13, 1984 pp. 161-169; Xavier de Salas and Fernando Marias, El Greco y el arte de su tiempo. Las notas de El Greco a Vasari (El Greco and the art of his time. The notes from El Greco to Vasari), Madrid, 1992, Manya S. Pagiavla, Domenicus Scepticus: An Analysis of El Greco's Autograph Marginalia on Vasari's Vitae (1568), on Barbaro's Edition of Vitruvius's 'Dieci Libri dell'Architettura' (1556) and on Serlio's 'Architettura' (1566), University of Essex, 2006.

Notes: 

Of the three volumes of Giuntina, to be annotated are the second and the third ones. This copy of the Lives belonged to Federico Zuccari (see below), who donated it to El Greco during his stay in Spain (1586-1588). The Italian artist had already affixed some records, of which Dominikos Theotokópoulos did not fail to report the paternity. It should be said that most of the records are anyway authored by El Greco. Only shortly before his death, the latter gave the Lives to a student, Louis Tristan (see below), who in turn wrote some notes.

The three volumes of El Greco’s Giuntina had a particularly complicated collecting history until in the seventies Xavier de Salas, former director of the Prado, managed to get hold of them by buying the volumes on the market. In 1982, Salas presented a first report of El Greco’s notes related to Titian at the conference "El Greco de Toledo" (Toledo, April 1982). The contents of the report were published two years later. The death of Salas however meant that the annotated edition of all notes had to wait until 1992, thanks to the intervention of Fernando Marías. The three volumes of Salas time were progressively transferred to the National Library of Spain; the last was acquired very recently (December 2014) thanks to the intervention of the Fundación El Greco 2014 that bought it at an auction at Christie's and has just donated it to the National Library.

At the beginning of 2017 the publishing house Castelvecchi printed the first Italian translation of the annotations

[Sample 8]

Guidiccioni, Lelio

Commented edition: Giuntina
Preserved at: National Library of Paris, mark Res. K. 742.

References: Michel Hochmann, Les annotations marginales de Federico Zuccaro à un exemplaire des «Vies» de Vasari. La réaction anti-vasarienne à la fin du XVIe siècle (The margin notes of Federico Zuccari to a copy of "Lives" by Vasari. The anti-Vasari reaction in the late sixteenth century) in Revue de l'Art, 1988 n. 80, pp. 64-71.

Notes:

The notes by Lelio Guidiccioni (1582-1643), the art superintendent and member of the entourage of the Borgheses first and the Barberinis later on, were affixed to the Giunti edition, which had already been annotated by Federico Zuccari (see below). In fact, to be more precise, at the beginning of the work Guidiccioni wrote: "...  February 6, 1618 These three volumes are the first printing [editor's note: It means that they are the first printing of the second edition, or the Giuntina], which is the best. They are rare [...] But nothing makes them more estimated than they have owned by Federico Zuccaro, famous painter of our times, who studied them with diligent observation, and stated his judgment, hand-written in pen." Michel Hochmann has published in 1988 the margin notes of Guidiccioni together with those of Zuccari.

[Sample 9]
de Hollanda, Francisco

Commented edition: Giuntina
Preserved at: National Library of Lisbon.

References: Reynaldo dos Santos. Un exemplaire de Vasari annoté par Francisco de Olanda (A sample of Vasari annotated by Francisco de Holland) in Studi vasariani. Proceedings of the International Conference for the Fourth Centenary of the first edition of the "Lives" by Vasari. Firenze, Sansoni, 1952, pp. 91-92.

Notes:

Only the first volume of the third part has been retained. The footnotes, attached in Portuguese, are four in total. I am mentioning, only in passing, that the Portuguese Francisco de Hollanda (1517-1585) lived several years in Italy, in the entourage of Vittoria Colonna, and, once back at home, wrote Dae pintura antiga (On antique painting) (1548), whose second volume included the Roman Dialogues with Michelangelo. 

[Sample 10]
Jones, Inigo

Commented edition: Giuntina
Preserved at: Worcester College, Oxford.

References: Anthony W. Johnson. Three volumes annotated by Inigo Jones: Vasari’s Lives (1568), Plutarch’s Moralia (1614), Plato’s Republic (1554). Åbo, Åbo Academy University Press, 1997.

Notes:

The notes of the English architect Inigo Jones (1573-1652) relate mainly to the first volume of the third part of the Lives and, according to the commentator, have been drafted at different times between the first and second decade of the seventeenth century.

I thank the author who sent me a free copy of the work.

[Sample 11]
Lampsonius, Domenicus

Commented edition: Torrentiniana
Preserved at: Royal Library of Bruxelles. mark VH 22345
References: Da van Eyck a Brueghel. Scritti sulle arti di Domenico Lampsonio (From van Eyck to Brueghel. Writings on arts by Domenicus Lampsonius), Introduction and notes by Gianni Carlo Sciolla and Caterina Volpi. Translation by Maria Teresa Sciolla, Turin, UTET, 2001; Archives des arts, sciences, et lettres. Documents inédits publiés et annotés par Alexandre Pinchart, Gand, 1860, Première Serie – Tome premier; Jean Puraye, Dominique Lampson, humaniste, 1532-1599, Bruges, 1950.

Notes:

Within the volume Da van Eyck a Brueghel. Scritti sulle arti di Domenico Lampsonio (a book published for Christmas 2001 by UTET), it was included an indication that the Flemish humanist Domenicus Lampsonius (to whom Vasari indeed owed many of the news on the artists of that region, which he added in the Giuntina edition 1568) studied for a long time the first edition (the Torrentiniana) of Vasari's work. The sample belonging to Lampsonius is located today in the Royal Library of Brussels, and displays in the opening page a manuscript poem in praise of Vasari himself (see p. 34 n. 1). The composition by Lampsonius appears in a picture on p. 30 of the UTET edition. It is without date and there is no proof that Lampsonius wrote it immediately after it came into the possession of the work. The Flemish humanist addressed a letter to Giorgio Vasari in October 1564. In fact, thereby he introduced himself to him (pp. 34-35), and explained his efforts to grasp Vasari's Lives. He told that he had entered into possession of the Lives four years before, and that he had found himself in great difficulty, because at the time he did not master any Italian. He had learned the language by reading the Lives and now was writing to the author to thank him and congratulate him on the work. The transcription of the poem was made in 1860 by Alexandre Pinchart in the first volume of the Archives des arts, sciences, et lettres (pp. 281-282); a second transcription (declared as amended by the errors of 1860) was due to Jean Puray (1950). In all honesty, considering also the content of the letter of Lampsonius, I would be surprised if the specimen, in addition to the poem, did not include also notes that reveal its study.

[Sample 12]
Maffei, Scipione

Commented edition: Torrentiniana
Preserved at: Missing (Vatican Apostolic Library, Cicognara Fund?)

References: Leopoldo Cicognara, Catalogo ragionato dei libri d’arte e d’antichità (Annotated catalogue of books on art and antiques), Pisa, 1821.

Notes:

At number 2389 of his reasoned catalogue [24], Leopoldo Cicognara lists a sample of the Torrentiniana of Vasari's Lives and comments: "Magnificent and well preserved specimen with rare handwritten postscript by M. Scipione Maffei, whom it belonged." To my knowledge, this indication of Count Cicognara has not been given any further deepening. Logically, since the entire library was sold to Leo XII in 1824, the specimen with the few notes of the Veronese scholar and antiquarian Scipione Maffei (1675-1755), author of Verona illustrata (Verona illustrated), should still be in Library Vatican.

[Sample 13]
Mancini, Annibale

Commented edition: Giuntina
Preserved at: Corsiniana Library Rome, Roma, mark 29.E.4-6
References: Eliana Carrara. La fortuna delle Vite del Vasari fra Firenze, Modena e Roma nel primo Seicento: il caso dell’esemplare giuntino 29.E.4-6 della Biblioteca Corsiniana (The fortune of the Lives of Vasari between Florence, Modena and Rome in the early seventeenth century: the specimen case Giuntino 29.E.4-6 of the Corsiniana Library) in Le Vite del Vasari. Genesi, topoi, ricezione, (Vasari's Lives. Genesis, topos, reception), Venezia, Marsilio, 2010.

Notes:

The three volumes of this edition were already known to Bottari, who used them for his edition of Vasari's Lives in the mid-eighteenth century, advancing the hypothesis that the notes were of Sisto Badalocchio [25]. And yet the authenticity of the annotations has never been defined. We have indeed seen that Carlo Maria Simonetti claims that they have been annotated by Celio (see examplary 6) on the basis of his supposed self-portrait. Nicoletta Lepri already pointed out that, in reality, the notes are of different hands and suggest instead that the specimen was part of the "historic core" of the library, and therefore was there before 1754. She also stated that a pair of the hands that included the notes were precisely those of Bottari, who was preparing the publication of the Lives [26]. It is really peculiar how only Eliana Carrara noticed that the title page, in a non-central, but readable location, included the writing "Owned by Annibale Mancini, Florentine". The problem is that we know very little about Annibale Mancini. He was an artist in the service of Cardinal Alessandro d'Este, but - for example - we do not know his date of birth and death. In 1622 he stated that he had been at the service of the cardinal for sixteen years, i.e. since 1606. Judging from the notes, Annibale appeared anyhow well placed in the court circuits between Rome, Modena and the original Florence, and provided valuable information on the fate of some works in the collections. His footnotes have, therefore, a specific value, thanks to his knowledge. Another significance has to be added, as we already mentioned: Mancini transcribed at the margins of the volumes of Giuntina some annotations that he had copied from the original annotated by Carracci (see sample 5). He attributed them to Agostino, thereby witnessing a - wrong – tradition of the authorship of the annotations well before Malvasia (1678). Unfortunately, the article by Eliana Carrara did not present the full transcript of annotations, which we hope will be soon presented to the public.

[Sample 14]
Resta, Sebastiano

Commented edition: Torrentiniana
Preserved at: Vatican Apostolic Library, mark Riserva.IV.5
References: Le postille di Padre Sebastiano Resta ai due esemplari delle Vite di Giorgio Vasari nella Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (The Margin Notes of Father Sebastiano Resta to the two specimens of Giorgio Vasari's Lives in the Vatican Apostolic Library), edited by Barbara Agosti and Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodino. Transcription and comment by Maria Rosa Pizzoni, Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2015 (but 2016); Melani, Margherita, Torrentiniane vasariane: postille e disegni di Padre Resta (Vasari Torrentini Editions: Annotations and Drawings by Father Resta) in Mosaico. Temi e metodi d’arte e critica per Gianni Carlo Sciolla (Mosaic. Themes and methods for art and criticism, dedicated to Gianni Carlo Sciolla), Naples, Luciano publisher, 2012.

Notes:

Known for some time, the margin notes affixed by Father Sebastiano Resta (1635-1714) to two copies of a Torrentiniana (see also examplary 15 below) were recently published in a commented edition by Barbara Agosti and Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò. Resta was an art intendant who was widely inserted in scholar, merchant, and collection circuits of his time. World-famous was his very large collection of drawings (with thousands and thousands of samples) designed to give life to a "illustrated" art history, a project that never went through. The collection was rapidly dispersed in various streams (most of it ended up in the UK). In addition to the drawings, Sebastiano Resta was, however, also an avid reader and note taker of sources. In addition to the two copies of Vasari mentioned here, we know that he densely annotated the Treaty of Lomazzo, the German Academy of Sandrart, the Lives of Baglione [27] and the Pictorial Abecedary by Pellegrino Orlandi. That of Father Sebastiano can be safely called a classic example of horror vacui, the fear of empty space: the margin notes filled the pages of the Lives almost in an effort to also take advantage of the smallest free space. One of the features of Resta’s notes is to make sketches in the margins of annotated copies; in most cases, the drawings are obviously referring to the printed text, so that Simonetta Prosperi Rodinò rightly speaks of "figured footnotes".

The notes were often dated. Those of the Riserva specimen contained information ranging from 1664 (Resta had just moved to Rome from his native Milan) to 1711. The notes of the Cicognara specimen (see sample 15) ranged from 1682 to 1690. This told, Barbara Agosti took the view that the notes by Riserva were hastier, as if the Father was traveling always with an available copy, and updated the Lives directly on these volumes; those of Cicognara seem rather the result of higher meditation and were therefore operated at a later time. The sequence as collectors of the volumes can be reconstructed partially. The Riserva specimen belonged to Count Stroganoff (1829-1910), the passionate collector of books and art objects, which in the second half of 1800 brought his residence to Rome. The Cicognara volumes, instead, belonged to Carlo Bianconi first and Giuseppe Bossi later on and were then purchased after the latter's death (1815) by Leopoldo Cicognara who was then forced – almost bankrupted - to sell his entire extraordinary collection of books and manuscripts to Pope Leo XII (1824). Before he died, however, Giuseppe Bossi had made a (partial) copy of footnotes adding some personal records. This copy was published in 1875 in Archivio Storico Lombardo: Giornale della società storica lombarda (Lombard Historical Archive: Journal of the Lombard Historical Society) (1875 December, Series 1, Volume 2, Issue [1-4]) with an introduction by Giuseppe Mongeri and with the title Arte antica e artisti: postille di anonimo seicentista alla prima edizione del Vasari (Ancient art and artists: notes of an anonymous 1600 author to the first edition of Vasari) [28]. Mongeri was unaware that the author of the notations was Resta.

[Sample 15]
Resta, Sebastiano

Commented edition: Torrentiniana
Preserved at: Vatican Apostolic Library, mark Cicognara IV.2390
References: Le postille di Padre Sebastiano Resta ai due esemplari delle Vite di Giorgio Vasari nella Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (The Margin Notes of Father Sebastiano Resta to the two specimens of Giorgio Vasari's Lives in the Vatican Apostolic Library), edited by Barbara Agosti and Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodino. Transcription and comment by Maria Rosa Pizzoni, Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 2015 (but 2016); Melani, Margherita, Torrentiniane vasariane: postille e disegni di Padre Resta (Vasari Torrentini Editions: Annotations and Drawings by Father Resta) in Mosaico. Temi e metodi d’arte e critica per Gianni Carlo Sciolla (Mosaic. Themes and methods for art and criticism, dedicated to Gianni Carlo Sciolla), Naples, Luciano publisher, 2012.

Notes:
See sample 14.

End of Part One

The Inventory continues in Part Two 

NOTES

[1] Le opere di Giorgio Vasari, con nuove annotazioni e commenti di Gaetano Milanesi (The works of Giorgio Vasari, with new annotations and comments by Gaetano Milanesi), vol. VII p. 73 n. 1. Facsimile reprint of the Sansoni 1906 edition, with an introduction by Paola Barocchi, Sansoni 1973.

[2] Maddalena Spagnolo, Considerazioni in margine: le postille alle Vite di Vasari (Considerations at the margin: the annotations to Vasari's Lives) in Arezzo and Vasari. Lives and annotations, Arezzo, 16-17 June 2005, conference proceedings edited by Antonino Caleca. Foligno, Cartei and Bianchi, 2007, pp. 251-271.

[3] The most famous case is that of Ferdinando Leopoldo Del Migliore. See Paola Barocchi, Le postille di Del Migliore alle Vite vasariane (The annotations by Del Migliore to Vasari's Lives), in Vasari storico e artista (Vasari Historian and Artist). Proceedings of the International Congress in the fourth centenary of the death, Arezzo and Florence, 2 to 8 September 1974 Florence, Sansoni, 1976, pp. 439-447. But see also Veruska Picchiarelli, Un tentativo di integrazione delle Vite: le postille all’edizione giuntina di Durante Dorio da Leonessa (An attempt to integrate the Lives: the annotations to the Giuntina edition of Durante Dorio da Leonessa) in: Arezzo and Vasari. Lives and annotations..., quoted, pp. 273-323; and Giovanni Francesco de' Giudici, Estratto delle Vite de’ pittori di Giorgio Vasari, per ciò che concerne Arezzo (Abstract of the Lives of painters by Giorgio Vasari, with regard to Arezzo, Tavola (Po), Cartei e Becagli, 2005.

[4] Marco Ruffini, Sixteenth-Century Paduan Annotations to the First Edition of Vasari’s Vite (1550) in Renaissance Quarterly 62 (2009). The copy, preserved in the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, presents notes of Carlo Lenzoni aimed at preparing the work index (p. 751 n. 8).

[5] Arpad Weixlgärtner, Ein später Glossator des Vasari in “Die graphischen Künste” (The graphic arts), III, 1938, pp. 125-156.

[6] While they are not covered within the scope that I am considering here, these notes, probably affixed by an incision expert around 1743 (the author doubtfully mentioned Anton Maria Zanetti the Younger) seem particularly important and would deserve to be translated into Italian and studied.

[7] Giovanna Perini, Gli scritti dei Carracci. (The writings of the Carraccis), Bologna, Nuova Alfa Publishing, 1990.

[8] Lucia Collavo, L’esemplare dell’edizione giuntina de Le Vite di Giorgio Vasari letto e annotato da Vincenzo Scamozzi (The sample of the Giunti edition of The Lives of Giorgio Vasari read and annotated by Vincenzo Scamozzi) in Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte (Essays and Art History memories) 29 (2005), pp. 1-213.

[9] Mario Fanti, , Le postille carraccesche alle Vite del Vasari: il testo originale (The Carracci’s annotations to Vasari's Lives: the original text), in Il Carrobbio, V, 1979, p. 151.

[10] Giovanna Perini, The writings of the Carraccis..., cit., p. 37.

[11] Heinrich Bodmer had published the Carracci’s notes in 1939 from a seventeenth-century transcript (at the time, the original was lost). See: Heinrich Bodmer, Margin notes by Agostino Carracci in the Vasari edition of 1568 in: Il Vasari, X (1939), pp. 89-128.

[12] See Giuseppe Patota, Mentire per la gola in Lingua e stile XLVIII (December 2013), pp. 155-176.

[13] Giovanna Perini, The writings of the Carraccis..., quoted, pp. 37-38.

[14] I am well aware that there is another alternative: one of the two copies might not be hand-written by Federico Zuccari. And yet, until proven otherwise, I support the views of Milanesi, who was a trustworthy scholar.

[15] Giovanna Perini, The writings of the Carraccis ..., cit., p. 38.

[16] Maddalena Spagnolo, Considerations at the margin: ..., quoted, p. 269.

[17] Giulio Cesare Gigli, La Pittura Trionfante (The Triumphant Painting), Venice, published by Giovanni Alberti, 1615. 

[18] Maddalena Spagnolo, Considerations at the margin: ..., quoted, p.  252.

[19] On the historical misfortune of the Torrentiniana compared to the Giuntina, see Paola Barocchi, Premessa al Commento secolare (Introduction to the Secular Commentary) Vol. I pp. IX-XLV, 1967 in: Giorgio Vasari, Le Vite de più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori. (The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects), Text by Rosanna Bettarini, Secular Comment by Paola Barocchi, Florence, Sansoni-S.P.E.S., 1966-1997.

[20] Eliana Carrara. La fortuna delle Vite del Vasari fra Firenze, Modena e Roma nel primo Seicento: il caso dell’esemplare giuntino 29.E.4-6 della Biblioteca Corsiniana (The fortune of the Lives of Vasari between Florence, Modena and Rome in the early seventeenth century: the specimen case Giuntina 29.E.4-6 of Corsiniana Library) in Vasari's Lives. Genesis, topoi, reception, Venezia, Marsilio, 2010. See p. 224-25.

[21] Maddalena Spagnolo, Considerations at the margin: ..., quoted, p. 260.

[22] Carlo Cesare Malvasia, Felsina pittrice, Bologna 1678, Vol. II, p. 135.

[23] Carlo Maria Simonetti, La vita delle «Vite» vasariane. Profilo storico di due edizioni, (The life of Vasari "Lives". Historic profile of two editions), Florence, Leo S. Olschki, 2005. See. p. 153.

[24] Cicognara, Leopoldo, Catalogo ragionato dei libri d’arte e d’antichità posseduti dal Conte Cicognara, (Reasoned catalogue of the books of art and antiques owned by Count Cicognara), Pisa, 1821.

[25] Giorgio Vasari, Vite de più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architetti, (Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects), edited by Giovanni Gaetano Bottari, Rome, 1759-1760, vol. III, p. 309.

[26] Nicoletta Lepri, Remarks by Gaspare Celio..., cit., p. 345.

[27] I understand that an annotated edition of the annotations to Baglione is about to be published (edited by Barbara Agosti) by Officina Libraria publisher.

[28] It can be inspected on the Internet at 

http://emeroteca.braidense.it/eva/sfoglia_articolo.php?IDTestata=26&CodScheda=113&CodVolume=765&CodFascicolo=2086&CodArticolo=60109