[EARLY PRINTING]. RUSCELLI, [Girolamo (d. 1566)]. Indice de gl'uomini illustri, del Sig. Ieronimo Ruscelli. Opera utilissima chiunque vorr hauer notitia, e valersi di tutti i nomi, & conditioni de gli uomini, & donne, & Dei, celebrati cos" da Poeti, come da gl'Istorici, e da Filosofi. Venice: Comin da Trino di Monferrato, 1572. Small 4to. [4], 172 leaves. Woodcut printer's device on title, woodcut headband and decorative initial letters. Eighteenth-century half calf over speckled boards, gilt spine with brown morocco label, decorative pastedown endpapers. FIRST EDITION OF THIS EARLY BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY.

Ruscelli was a prolific scholar and writer; he was also known as Alessio Piedmontese. His best-known works include Del modi di comporre in versi (1559), Commentari della lingua italiana (1576), and the beautifully-illustrated Le imprese illustri. The present posthumously-published work is a biographical dictionary, identifying hundreds of men and women and their contributions. 

Binding worn and chipped, joints cracking, light dampstain in bottom margin of first twenty or so leaves. Title-page restored a lower corner, trimmed a bit close at upper margins, with occasional minor textual loss. Late nineteenth-century armorial bookplate of Maturin Livingston Delafield (of the famous American family, the Livingstons) on front pastedown, ink inscription of the grandson of the owner of the bookplate. A very good copy.