by Francesco Volpi
Life
Ippolito Salviani’s fortune is linked more to his studies on marine animal species than to the typographic activity he began in his own home, due to the need to complete the publication of Aquatilium animalium historiae. In general, Ippolito Salviani was a 16th-century scholar of multiple interests and multifaceted output;
Suffice it to mention that he was also a physician, university professor, held public office, and was even a playwright. The breadth of his knowledge, earned him consideration and esteem from the cultural milieu of his time.
Born in Città di Castello in 1514, he began his medical studies in Perugia, then visited numerous Italian universities until he settled in Rome, where, having become a physician, he became interested in natural history.
The decisive meeting for his career and studies was with Cardinal Marcello Cervini. A former bishop of Nicastro, then cardinal librarian in 1548, Cervini was in contact with numerous humanists, a lover of books, possessed an important personal library, and, since 1539, had been cultivating the project of publishing the Greek manuscripts of the Vatican Library that had remained unpublished. As cardinal librarian he promoted historical, archaeological and scientific research. Attracted by Salviani’s value and studies, in 1550, he had him appointed papal archiater: he was thus personal physician to Paul III, to Cervini himself who became pope under the name of Marcellus II, and then to Paul IV.
From 1551 until the end of 1568, Salviani was a professor of practical medicine at La Sapienza, but, as noted above, he also cultivated letters. First published in Rome in 1554 by Dorico Brothers, Ruffiana is a lively comedy that paints the vices of his time.
In 1564, he was the protomedico of the Collegio Medico in Rome. Passionate about ancient sculptures, of which he was a collector, in 1565, he was appointed conservator of the register of Rome, an administrative position concerning the protection of antiquities.
He died in Rome in 1572.
Typographic activity
In the colophon of an edition of a work on the funeral of Charles V found in the Biblioteca Casanatense, we find perhaps the formula that most reflects Ippolito Salviani’s publishing history: in casa de Hipp. Salviano.
The need to print at home is related to the events that accompanied the publication of Aquatilium animalium historiae.
Salviani could count, in order to conduct his ichthyological studies, on funding from Cardinal Cervini, which enabled him to procure species of fish not found in Italy, and to make trips to the rest of the Mediterranean and to some regions of Northern Europe.
As for the publication of Aquatilium, Cervini himself, presumably in 1554-the date on the title page of the work-had the Vatican Library subsidize the printing.
However, after being elected pope, under the name Marcellus II, on April 9, 1555, Cervini died 21 days later, on April 30. As a result of this sudden death, the printing of Aquatilium, no longer supported by Salviani’s patron, began to suffer delays. Hence Salviani’s decision to continue the printing of Aquatilium himself. As evidence of this, while Cervini’s coat of arms remained on the title page of the work, the dedication, at first intended for him, was replaced with one to Paul IV.
The difficulties must not have been few, since the printing was completed no earlier than 1557, the date inscribed on the colophon (1558 in a variant issue). The sheer size of such an imposing work could not be reconciled with the slow pace of the typographical work carried out in house, so much so that the publishing project came to a halt at the publication of the first volume. What is more, Salviani found himself forced to deal not only with the printing, but also with the sale and dissemination of his work.
On one such occasion, he instructed Ulisse Aldrovandi, a Bolognese physician and botanist with whom he had an exchange of correspondence, to arrange the sale of three specimens of Aquatilium sent to Bologna, through the help of the Venetian bookseller Gabriele Gilolito.
Salviani also published other works himself, printing them in house, and later participated in the publishing affair of the Stamperia del Popolo Romano. This initiative, promoted by Pius IV in 1561 so that new editions of the sacred scriptures would be published under ecclesiastical control, led, in 1563, to the transfer of the printing house to the city of Rome; on December 20 of that same year, Ippolito Salviani was deputed to preside over the board of the administration of the press, together with Pirro Tari and Antonio Massa. In April 1564, however, Pius IV gave the press to Paolo Manuzio, who, while materially in charge of it, again relegated its management to the city of Rome. Thus, due to both a lack of adequate funds and disagreements with Manuzio himself, on October 8, 1569, the decision was made to dispose of the press; on that same occasion, Salviani asked and obtained to be relieved from the administrative council of the Stamperia Popolo Romano.
Editions printed by Ippolito Salviani present in Casanatense
Collocation: l. XIX. 26
Grattarolo, Guglielmo <1516-1568>
DE MEMO||RIA REPARANDA,||AVGENDA SER-||VANDAQVE LIBER||VNVS.||DE LOCALI VEL AR||tificiosa Memoria||Liber alter.||[marca Z 01022 ; V 00121]||ROMAE. M D LVIII. [colophon:] IMPRESSVM ROMAE.||1555.
90, [6] p. ; 8°.
((For the author’s name, see BMC I, 1139. – Device on the title page: la Fortezza o Sansone trasporta sulle spalle due colonne incrociate. – Epistola al lettore a c. A2. – Iniziali ornate. – Marking: A-F8
Imprint: a-od esut inas teui (3) 1558 (R)
Placements: A. IV. 62 – y. II. 18
Lippomano, Luigi
TOMVS SEXTVS||VITARVM SAN||CTORVM PRISCORVM||PATRVM.||QVAB INSTANTE R. P. D. ALOYSIO||LIPOMANO, EPISCOPO VERONENSI,||NVNC PRIMUM EX SYMEONE|| METAPHRASTE GRAECO||AVCTORE LATINAE|| FACTAE SVNT,||AC PER EVNDEM IN VNVM VOLVMEN||COLLECTAE CVM SOLITIS SCHOLIIS||ADVERSVS PRAESENTIVM|| HAERETICORVM DELI-||RATIONES.||RO [device: Z 01022 ; V 00121] MAE||EX OFFICINA SALVIANA||M. D. LVIII. [colophon:] ROMAE||EX OFFICINA SALVIANA||M. D. LVIII.
[16], 403, [5] c. ; 8°.
((Device on the title page: la Fortezza o Sansone trasporta sulle spalle due colonne incrociate. – Stessa marca in fine a c. 2E7v. – Dedication to papa Paolo III a c. 12r. – Epistola al lettore a c. 13v. – Indice delle vite dei santi a c. 21r. – Annotation table to c. 24r. – Ornate initials. – Segnatura: 1-44 a-z8 A-2E8 (E8 bianca)
Imprint: erun 6.8. iui- ridi (3) 1558 (R)
Placements: VOL. MISC. 2487. 2
ORDINE||DELLE ESEQVIE||FAMOSISSIME CELE-||BRATE PER LA MORTE DELLO|| Inuittissimo Carlo Quinto||Imperatore.||ALLA CORTE DEL SE-||renissimo Re Filippo suo figliuolo.||In Bruselle.||[stemma imperiale di Carlo V] [colophon:] [marca Z 01022 ; V 00121]||IN ROMA||CON LICENTIA DELLI SV-||PERIORI IN CASA DE HIPP.||SALVIANO A DI XI. DE||FEBRARO. 1559.
[8] c. ; 4°.
((Device at the end: la Fortezza o Sansone trasporta sulle spalle due colonne incrociate. – Iniziale ornata. – Segnatura: A-B4
Impronta: erie reel noii nedi (C) 1559 (A)
Collocation: FF. XIII. 57
Iacopone da Todi
I CANTICI,||DEL BEATO IACOPONE||DA TODI, CON DILIGEN-||ZA RISTAMPATI,||CON LA GIONTA DI ALCVNI||DISCORSI SOPRA DI ESSI.||ET CON LA VITA SVA.||NVOVAMENTE POSTA||IN LVCE.||[FREGIO]||[device: Z 01022 ; V 00121]||IN ROMA||APPRESSO HIPP. SALVIANO.||NEL M. D. LVIII. [colophon:] [marca Z 01022 ; V 00121]||IN ROMA||APPRESSO HIPP.||SALVIANO.||M. D. LVIII.
[12], 142, [6] c. ; 4°.
((Branding on title page and in end: la Fortezza o Sansone trasporta sulle spalle due colonne incrociate. – Vita di Iacopone da Todi, a cura di Giovanni Battista Modio, ai fascicoli 1-34. – Ordine alfabetico dei cantici a c. N3r. – Ordine numerico dei cantici a c. N4r. – Tavola delle voci a c. O1v. – Chiarimento per il lettore sui nomi dei luoghi a c. O3v. – Errata e registro a c. O4r. – Ornate and calligraphic initials. – Segnatura: 1-34 a-z4 A-O4
Imprints: hehe saa- a,o, chco (3) 1558 (R)
Collocation: I. 1. 23
Camerario, Bartolomeo
REPETITIO LEGIS||IMPERIALEM.||DE PROHIB. FEVD. ALIEN. PER FEDE.||PER BARTHOLOMAEVM||CAMERARIVM BENEVENTANVM.||[ritratto calcografico di Bartolomeo Camerario]||ROMAE||APVD HIPP.SALVIANVM||M. D. LVIII.
CVIII, [8] c. ; fol.
((Dedicated to papa Paolo IV a c. A2r. – Indice a c. T1r. – Errata a c. V3r. – Ornamented initials. – Marking: A-S6 T-V4 (V4 bianca)
Imprint: 8.e. s.in a-e- raga (3) 1558 (R)
Placement: O. I. 15
Salviani, Ippolito
AQVATILIUM ANIMALIUM HISTORIAE,||LIBER PRIMVS CVM EORVNDEM||FORMIS, AERE EXCVSIS.||HIPPOLYTO SALVIANO TYPHERNATE,||ROMAE MEDICINAM PROFITENTE||AVCTORE.||ROMAE. M. D. LIIII. [colophon:] ROMAE||APUD EVNDEM HIPPOLYTUM||SALVIANUM. MENSE IANVARIO.||M D LVIII.
[8], 256 c. : ill. ; fol.
((Intaglio cover page di Nicolas Beatrizet: titolo, responsabilità, e indicazioni di pubblicazione sono incisi in un’edicola la cui cima reca, tra due puttini, lo stemma di Marcello II; al centro dell’edicola, tra due sirene, il ritratto dell’autore in cornice ovale. – Device at the end (Z 01022 ; V 00121): la Fortezza o Sansone trasporta sulle spalle due colonne incrociate. – 98 incisioni (numerate 1-53, 55-99) di Antoine Lafrery, alcune di Nicolas Beatrizet. – Dedica a Giulio III, a Carlo V, Enrico IV e Cosimo Medici a c. [croce]1. – Dedica a Paolo IV a c. [croce]7. – Tavole dei nomi da c. A1v a c. G8r. – Epistola al lettore a c. G8v. – Indici da c. 2I1r a c. 2I7v. – Registro e colophon a c. 2I8r. – Ornamented initials. – Marking: [croce]8 A-2I8
Imprint: reub uses 7.1. PaTe (3) 1554 (R)
Bibliography
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