I Vangeli Secondo Matteo, Marco, Luca, Giovanni

(Verona: Officina Bodoni, 1963. Quarto. (350)pp. One of 275 copies printed in Italian. Wood-engraved title page by Reynolds Stone and 114 woodcuts from the Epistole et Evangelii (1495), newly cut by Bruno Bramanti and Italo Zetti. Mardersteig conjectured that the series of woodcuts that graced one of the "rarest and most beautiful incunables illustrated with woodcuts" was the work of the Renaissance painter, Bartolomeo di Giovanni. In keeping with the typographical tenets of the Officina Bodoni, this was the third edition of the Gospels produced by Mardersteig: the first was the English version, appearing in 1962, followed by a version in Latin. The present copy bears a presentation inscription from Pope Paul VI, dated 9 March, 1968, to Virgilio Ferrari, who served as mayor of Milan from 1951 to 1961. Ferrari has the distinction of having been the longest-serving Milanese mayor of the twentieth century, and he oversaw much of that city's post-World War II modernization. Before he became Paul VI, Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini was the Archbishop of Milan from 1953 to 1963, and the second man to ascend to the Papacy from this position. As Pope, Paul VI is best remembered for the completion of the Second Vatican Council, begun by his predecessor John XXIII, in addition to the encyclical on the Regulation of Birth, which was published just four months after the date of the present inscription. Few small surface scuffs, very slight toning to spine ends, else very fine in publisher's full green oasis morocco with ornamentation and titling in gilt on front cover, titling in gilt on spine. Housed in the original morocco-trimmed cloth slipcase. T.e.g. (Mardersteig 130).