Nota su "Il Selvaggio" del 1535: una marca di autenticazione editoriale, un editore misterioso e una falsa indicazione di stampa

Il Selvaggio is an undoubtedly minor chivalresque poem composed by one Giovambattista Cortese from Bagnacavallo in Romagna. In 1535, probably some years after the author had died, the work was published in Venice by the Nicolini da Sabbio printing firm. The privilege for the edition was requested by a certain Andrea Trevisan. The edition is interesting for a curious woodcut placed at the end of the volume, depicting a reversed view of St Mark’s Square together with the inscription “Nemo hoc signo imprimere audeat”. At the top of the woodcut the atmospheric phenomenon known as parhelia or ‘sundogs’ is shown. The upper part of the woodcut, cut away from the original woodblock, appears again in an edition published in 1536 (on the subject of an occurrence of this phenomenon) which until now has always been thought to have been printed in Rome.