Author: Alessandro Salvio (c1570-c1640)
Year: 1634
Publisher: Editore: Giovanni Domenico Montanaro
Place: Napoli (Naples)
Description:
2 volumes in 1. 4 sheets+71 pages with woodcut vignettes. 8 sheets, 64 pages with woodcut vignettes. Octavo (8" x 5 1/2") bound in period vellum with handwritten author's name on spine. (Linde 383 f; van der Linde I, 369; Chicco / Sanvito, Lineamenti No. 755; Kieler Schachkatalog 1137; Schmid p. 302) From the library of Meindert Niemeijer. First edition of Il puttino altramente detto, il cavaliero errante del Salvio, sopra il gioco de' scacchi, con la sua apologia contra il Carrera, diviso in tre libr and second impression of Trattato dell'inventione et arte liberale del gioco di scacchi del Dottor Alessandro Salvio Napolitano Libro Quarto.
The beautiful title vignette shows the coat of arms of Pietro Giordano Ursino, to whom the book is also dedicated. Page 4 recto contains a "Sonnetto del Signor Giuseppe Imperato." The strong Italian chess player, describes the modifications of the King's Gambit and the Giuochi piani in his chess book. "Salvio's esteemed work consists of two parts, one of which, however, contains mostly historical notes." (Schmid) Pages 1-16 form a discorso sopra la nobilità, pages 17-48 contain the chess novel Il Puttino, whose hero is Gio. Leonardo da Cutri. A poem about chess is included on pages 36-42. The new edition of the Trattato from 1604 forms the fourth book of Puttino. The two parts name many famous chess players and chess writers.
Alessandro Salvio (1575-1640) was one of the foremost Neapolitan chess-players. A student of Michele di Mauro, Salvio cemented his international standing in 1598 when he defeated the Sicilian master, Paolo Boi. He established a chess academy in his native Naples (in the house of jurist Alessandro Rovito) and was a frequent player in the chess houses of the city, where he also demonstrated his skill at blindfold chess. Salvio was considered the unofficial international chess champion from 1598 until he was eclipsed, around 1620, by Gioachino Greco.
But Salvio s theories and practice remained foundational in Italian chess into the 18th century. "Italian players were generally content to rely on Salvio for their openings, and made no attempt to advance the theory of play until the rise of the Modenese masters in 1750." (Murray, A Short History of Chess, p. 56). Salvio s treatises: Salvio s first work on the subject of chess, "Trattato dell' Inventione et Arte Liberale del Gioco di Scacchi", "contains thirty-one chapters with openings, eleven with games at odds, and twenty-one giochi di partiti , or problems, some being supplied from actual play."(Murray, History of Chess, p. 825). This edition also contains the first edition of Salvio s Il Puttino . The book comprises a biographical romance of Giovanni Leonardo (called "Il Puttino"), the leading Italian player in the period just prior to Salvio s ascendancy (1560 1590), and the aforementioned Paolo Boi; large extracts from Jacobus de Cessolis medieval chess classic, "Liber… super ludo scacchorum", thirteen chapters of gambits, seven chapters of giochi piani (by which Salvio and his contemporaries meant games that are not gambits), and thirteen containing problems. Although Salvio is rather free with his details and dates, "Il Puttino" is also of importance for preserving information on leading figures of Italian chess culture in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, including records of famous matches, such as Geronimo Cascio s 1606 win over Giulio Cesare Polerio; and a match between Salvio s teacher Michele di Mauro and Tommaso Capputi.
Meindert Niemeijer (1902-1987) was a prolific author of 600 chess problems and of over 30 books and brochures. He was also an avid chess collector.
Condition: Bookplate of Meindert Niemeijer on the inside cover. Endpapers renewed. Book block loosened. Interior browned, partly heavily, partly stained at edges, a few pages with defects else a good copy of a very rare chess item.