This book by Mauro Boni is titled “Lettere Sui Primi Libri A Stampa Di Alcune Città E Terre Dell' Italia Superiore”, which means “Letters on the First Printed Books of Some Cities and Lands of Upper Italy”, and the book is a first edition that was published in Venice (Venezia) by Carlo Palese in 1794. The text is written in Italian, with Latin references, and it is complete in two parts, as called for: Lettera Prima and Lettera Seconda. The date is written on the titled page in Roman numerals (M. DCC. LXXXXIIII) and the book has an errata page at the end (“Correzioni” or Corrections on page CXXXI), and the last page of text says the book was examined by a review board from Padua on January 14, 1793, the reviewers stated the book said nothing against the Holy Catholic Faith, so they granted a license to Carlo Palese to publish the book. I.e., the review board was actually censoring the book to make sure it met with their religious / Catholic views. 
Lettera Prima deals with the first printed books of Genoa and Lettera Seconda deals with the first printed books of Pavia and Brescia during the incunable period. (Incunabula are books dated before 1500.) Boni attempted to arrange  the books from the presses of these three cities in chronological order, so he recorded and described 125 titles with bibliographical references, and the work  is fully indexed. 
The book has an illustrated vignette on the title page which depicts several putti designing or illustrating a book, an illustrated seal on the title page of Lettera Prima, an illustrated vignette on the title page of Lettera Seconda, and a tipped-in engraving which says “Humanis Divina adiuagere pulchrum”, which means “the divine helps the beautiful human”; the engraving depicts a winged god holding an hour glass in one hand and flying above four figures in a classical setting. 
Mauro Boni (1746 - 1817) was an Italian archaeologist and bibliographer who was born in Mozzanica, Italy and died in Reggio d’Emilie, Italy. Mozzanica is in the province of Bergamo, in the Lombardy region of Italy and Emilia-Romagna is in northern Italy, about 30 miles from Bologna. He was educated by the Jesuits in the classics and theology, he studied ecclesiastical history at the Sapienza University in Rome, then he traveled to Germany for more studies. Afterwards he became a professor of literature and vice-rector at the college of Bergamo and tutored the children of Prince Giustiniani in Venice, he contributed to the Italian edition of the Dictionary of Illustrious Men by Chaudon, which was published in Bassano, and the Lettres title here was an important bibliography of the first printed books of upper Italy. 
The book measures 11 1/8 x 8 inches wide and is in very good condition. It has a modern patterned binding and wide margins, and the binding is tight and the pages very clean, but we believe the pages have been bleached. There is light wear at the crown of the spine and a couple of tips are turned in, the front paste-down has some light browning at the edges and the front flyleaf has an owner’s name inscribed at the top, the title page has “M. Boni” inscribed in pencil at the top - Mauro Boni was the author of the book - and there are creases and light browning on the rear flyleaf and rear paste-down, and the tipped-in engraving is very clean.
Christie’s sold a first edition of this title for $600 in 2005, with some minor rubbing on the covers. Wannenes Auction House in Italy tried to sell the same title in 2023 (lot 486 in their November Books and Manuscripts auction), with an estimate of £300 - 400; we don’t know if the book ever sold. Susanne Schulz-Falster Rare Books of London is selling the book for £1250, Libreria Antiquaire Pregliasco, a bookstore in Torino, Italy, is selling the book for £1453, and De Simone Company in Washington, D.C.     is selling the book for $1750.
The book is also very rare. WorldCat says there are only four copies of the book in special collections around the world (at Florida State University in Tallahassee, the University of Illinois at Urbana, the New York Public Library, and the University of Michigan); six other libraries have the title, but they are all ebooks, and two more libraries supposedly have the book, but when we checked, the book is not longer listed in their holdings. 
We started the bidding low to give bidders a chance to own this important bibliography of incunabula from northern Italy.   
 

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