Giuoco Parti, Signed (1 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. London: Strangeways Press Ltd. 1951. Later Edition. Publisher's original red cloth binding with gilt titles to a black spine label, front board and spine badly faded, text pages tanned, text block tight. Newspaper clippings loosely inserted. First English translation of Scaino's Trattato del giuoco della palla, the first book on tennis. Limited to two-hundred and fifty copies, hand-numbered and autographed by P.A. Negretti this copy No. 8. Scaino (1524-1612), priest and doctor of theology, was thirty-one when his book was published. It covers many forms of tennis, his definition of "ball-game" in W.W. Kershaw's English translation (London, 1951) being: "a contest between at least two players who, placed one on one side and the other on the other as adversaries, do battle together with a solid and round instrument made from the skin of an animal and capable of bouncing, called a ball, each doing his utmost to obtain victory for himself by striking the ball as far as possible towards his adversary, striking it sometimes at the volley in mid-air, sometimes after the first bound, and sometimes at the half-volley." (ch. iii, pt. II). Pagination: xlii, 319, [3], xliii-lpp. Provenance: pencil inscription to the final leaf, David, Cambridge. Approximately 6 ¾ inches (17.3m) tall. Condition Report Externally Spine good condition structurally sound and strong, gilt titles to a black leather label, faded, minor wear. Joints good condition sound, worn. Corners good condition worn and bumped. Boards good condition red cloth, front board badly faded. Page edges good condition darkened to the top, tanned. Binding good condition sound. See above and photos. Internally Hinges good condition sound. Paste downs good condition tanned paper, foxed. End papers good condition tanned paper, foxed. Title good condition tanned, minor foxing and marks. Pages good condition tanned, minor foxing and marks. See photos. Signed by Author(s).