INCUNABLES - Antonio (Bettini) da Siena. Il Monte Santo di Dio. With 2 illuminated initials in gold and colors. Florence, Nicolaus Laurentii Alamanus, 10 September 1477. [125 (instead of 131)] ll. 33-35 lines, rom. Type. Later vellum binding with a handwritten title on the spine. GW 02204 - Hain/C. 1276 - Sander 452 - Goff A-886 - IBE 490 - IGI 711 - Pellechet 900 - CIBN A-470 - Proctor 6114 - BMC VI 626 - ISTC ia00886000. - Important work in printing history, here however without the 3 copper plates, which mark the beginning of book illustration in Florence and belong to the earliest copper engravings in books at all. - The only complete copy on the international auction market since 1918 came from the Otto Schäfer Collection (1994). - Antonio Bettini (1396-1487), a member of the Jesuit Order since 1439 and Bishop of Foligno in 1461, was a confidant and close collaborator of Enea Silvio Piccolomini (Pope Pius II). His "Monte santi di Dio" is also interpreted as the main literary work of his order dedicated to the care of the sick and especially to the victims of the plague. - The first two sheets with old backing in the margins, the others trimmed and supplemented on two sides. Heavily dampstained in places. - Provenance: - Bookplate of the Landau Finaly Collection, the legendary library of the Florentine banker Horace de Landau (1824-1903), which was auctioned in 1948-1949 and contained approx. 22,000 manuscripts and 66,000 prints (Lugt, Suppl.1334c).