Giacomo Mazzocchi

Giacomo Mazzocchi, in Latin on his titlepages Jacobus Mazochius, (working 1509 [ViaLibri: Books of 1509: Procopius, "De Bello Persico": the first Latin translation, and the first notice of Mazzocchi as a printer; a bibliography of books published by Mazzocchi is F. Ascarelli, "Annali di Giacomo Mazzocchi" (Florence) 1961.] — 1527) was a learned bookseller, printer, and noted antiquarian in papal Rome during the High Renaissance. [D.S. Rhodes, "Further notes on Publisher Giacomo Mazzocchi", "Papers of the British School at Rome" 40 (1972:239-42).] For humanists he might publish such scholarly works as the first printed repertory of Roman inscriptions, "Epigrammata Antiquae Urbis" (April 1521), a folio of some 3000 inscription, mostly of epitaphs, in which his collaborator was the Florentine priest Fra Francesco Albertini. ["Inscriptions of the Ancient City [of Rome] ". Mazzocchi signs the dedication, but the antiquarian and bibliographer "Gorio" accused him of dishonesty and ascribed the collection of Roman inscriptions to "Francesco degli Albertini" [sic] ("The Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge" vol. I pt ii (London, 1842) "s.v." "Albertini, Francesco degli" ) but "The Cambridge Modern History" (1902: vol. I:549) ascribes the work to Mazzocchi and his "collaborator" Francesco Albertini. [http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/exhibits/antiquity/occupations4b.htm Illustration of the open book] ); for the scholarly context of this publication, see W. Stenhouse "Reading Inscriptions and Writing Ancient History. Historical Scholarship in the Late Renaissance" (Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies Supplement 86) University of London, 2005.] For even more limited circulation he published ephemera that have become bibliographical rarities, but that show him as a trusted printer for the inner circle of Roman hiumanists: a tract on Roman calendars (1509), [Untitled tract of 1509 in the British Library, Case 125 dd 22, noted in Ruth Olitsky Rubinstein, "'Tempus edax rerum': A Newly Discovered Painting by Hermannus Posthumus" "The Burlington Magazine" 127, No. 988 (July 1985):425-36) p. 426, note.] a letter on sculptures in the Cortile del Belvedere by the nephew of the famous Pico della Mirandola (1513), [E. H. Gombrich, "Hypnerotomachiana" "Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes" 14.1/2 (1951:119-125), noted p. 123, note 1. ] or twelve panegyrics composed by Petrus Franciscus Justulus of Spoleto, honouring the Papal nephew Cesare Borgia (1510). [R. Garnett, "A Laureate of Caesar Borgia" "The English Historical Review" 17 No. 65 (January 1902:15-19) p. 15.]

At the same time, under the title "Carmina Apposita Pasquino", he published annual collections of satirical pasquinades that were circulating in Rome, which had been applied furtively by night to the Pasquino or other talking statues of Rome. Presumably Mazzocchi omitted any of these that were too critical of the Pope or the curia, [As Robert W. Scheller remarks in passing, "L'union des princes: Louis XII, His Allies and the Venetian Campaign 1509" "Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art" 27.4 (1999:195-242) p. 207.] for Mazzocchi, under papal privilege also published the "bullae" of the Third Lateran Council, 1512. [ [http://www.vialibri.net/552display/year_1512_1.html ViaLibri: Books from 1512: "Concilium Lateranense V"] ]

He disappeared during the Sack of Rome (1527) and nothing subsequent is known of him.

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