Della libraria vaticana ragionamenti di Mutio Pansa divisi in quattro parti. Ne quali non solamente si discorre dell'origine, e rinovatione di essa: ma anco con l'occasione delle Pitture, che vi sono nuovamente fatte si ragiona. Di tutte l'opere di N.S. Papa Sisto V. Dell'Historie de Concilij Generali fino al Tridentino. Delle Librarie famose, e celebri del Mondo. Di tutti gli Huomini illustri per l'inventione delle Lettere. Con l'Agiunta degli Alfabeti delle Lingue Straniere, e con alcuni Discorsi in fine de Libri, e della Stampa Vaticana, & di molte altre Librarie si publiche, come private in Roma. Con tre tavole [...]

THE VATICAN LIBRARY AND PRINTING PRESS
4to (224x155 mm). [8], 331, [29] pp. Collation: *4 A-Z Aa-Yy4. Register and colophon on l. Yy4r. With the printer's device on the title page and at the end, a woodcut illustration of the Vatican library and several woodcut specimens of exotic types (Hebrew, Syriac, Coptic, Phoenician, Etruscan, Armenian, Illyrian, Gothic, Arabic and other alphabets) in text, woodcut head- and tail-pieces, historiated and decorative initials (cf. A. Brogiotti & H.D.L. Vervliet, The Type Specimens of the Vatican Press, 1628, Amsterdam, 1968, p. 19). Later half vellum, inked title on spine. Giuseppe Arconati Visconti red stamp on the title page. Lower outer corner of l. R1 repaired with small loss of text supplied in a skillful handwriting, occasional browning and marginal staining.
First edition (a second issue was printed in 1608 under the title Vago, e diletteuole giardino di varie lettioni). A year later, in 1591, was published another work, in Latin, on the same subject with the title Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana by Angelo Rocca (1545-1620), head of the Vatican printing office and founder of the Biblioteca Angelica.
The work, one of the earliest treatises on library science, is divided into four parts, each of which contains respectively 40, 16, 9, and 29 ‘discorsi'. In the first parts is mainly described the new library building commissioned by Pope Sixtus V and realized from 1587 to 1590 by Domenico Fontana, and the other urbanistic works executed by this architect. In the second part are delineated the paintings on the right wall of the Salone Sistino showing the ecumenical councils of the Church (from Nicea to Trent). The third part deals with the most famous libraries of the world as depicted on the left wall of the Salone. The last part are listed all those who contributed to the invention of the alphabets as depicted on the pillars of the Salone. The work also mentions the invention of printing in China, its later discovery by Gutenberg, and the arrival in Italy of the typographers Sweynheim and Pannartz in 1465 (cf. S.F. Ostrow, The Counter-Reformation and the End of the Century, in: “Rome. Artistic Centers of the Italian Renaissance”, M.B. Hall, ed., Cambridge, 2005, pp. 287-289).
Mentioned is also (Book IV, Discorso XXVII) the Stamperia Apostolica Vaticana, from which were probably borrowed the exotic types shown in the present work. The pontifical printing press, with technical and scientific staff in the direct service of the Holy See, having as its main purpose the publication and dissemination of knowledge of the manuscripts kept there, was established under Sixtus V with the bull Eam semper ex omnibus (April 27, 1587). A little later, the bull Immensa aeterni Dei (January 22, 1588) established a Congregation of Cardinals pro Typographia Vaticana, with the mandate of ensuring that the publications (including editions in the vernacular as well as in Latin, Greek and Oriental languages, in the original alphabets, relating mainly to the Holy Scriptures, the Church Fathers, collections of Papal Bulls, and other ecclesiastical works in defense of the faith) complied with the requirements of the Council of Trent (cf. J. Ruysschaert, La Bibliothèque et la Typographie Vaticanes de Sixte V. Projects, étapes, continuités, in: “Miscellanea Bibliothecae Apostolicae Vaticanae” IV, Vatican City, 1990, pp. 343-363).
“[…] per la seconda [opera], quella di Pansa, rimangono oscure e la motivazione e l'impulso: anche se il volume è dedicato al Cardinal Scipione Gonzaga, non sappiamo chi abbia potuto autorizzare
il giovane autore a fornire in lingua italiana, un resoconto di un'impresa edilizia e pittorica che era stata terminata, nei suoi tratti essenziali, appena da qualche giorno […] Probabilmente anche qui fu lo stesso pontefice, compiaciuto per l'opuscolo di magnificazione poetica che Pansa gli aveva indirizzato nel 1588 […] e desideroso di completare la gamma delle informazioni celebrative sulla