Martini, Giuseppe
Owner Id3532
TypePerson
GenderMale
Biographical dates - Period of existence1870 - 1944
Other InformationBorn in Lucca on 7th September 1870 to Domenico Martini, an architect (who always played an important role in his son’s life) and Teresa Giampaoli. Martini studied Medicine, but just before finishing his degree, he decided to devote himself to the study of History, Palaeography, and Bibliography and started a career in the antiquarian book trade, becoming one the most refined bibliographers and scholars of his time: his sale catalogues were always designed not merely to sell books but as tools for research. However, at the beginning of his career, he had to face a series of difficulties, including an initial lack of welcome on the part of other antiquarian booksellers. Martini used to apply his ex-libris also in the books he intended to sell, and he was said to have done this in order to cancel previous marks of provenance. Leo Olschki suggested this in the review he wrote of Martini’s catalogue no. 8, the last one to be published in Lucca (Leo S. Olschki, in “La Bibliofilia”, II, 1900-1901, pp. 419-425; III, 1901-02, pp. 76-77 and 188). Arguments with Olschki and Martin Breslauer followed, about this and possibly other subjects, then a very unfortunate incident occurred which caused serious problems for Martini. He was sent to prison for a few days after which he decided to leave Italy and in May 1901 he moved to New York. There Martini built up his reputation as a precise reliable and learned bibliographer by working for a number of institutions and private collectors, compiling their catalogues (along with his own ones); he continued to work in the trade and became a fundamental point of reference for American collectors, such as Pierpoint Morgan. In 1913 Martini returned to Italy for the first time since 1901 but kept his residence in the United States, until 1924 when he moved to Florence, bringing his collection with him. In 1928 he finally decided to move his business to Lugano. In the meantime, his family (including his father and his son Enrico, born to his first wife, who had died in 1907) went on living in Tuscany (Lucca and Borgo a Mozzano) as they had always done. In 1930 Martini was officially exonerated by the Italian Ministry of Justice from the sentence passed against him thirty years earlier
During the course of his professional activity, Martini published a number of sale catalogues (see A. Ledda, contribution in the proceedings of the conference mentioned below; the series of sales catalogue reached the no. of 30, the last one published in Lugano, 1942), including catalogues of his private collection. The catalogue of Incunabula (see Barbieri, ibidem) was his most important work and was praised for its accuracy and its attention to textual content, along with all the bibliographical aspects of the editions included in it. The catalogue was prepared for the auction of his private collection, which was held in two parts, in 1934 in Lucerne and in 1935 in Zurich (a catalogue in two parts was then published by Hoepli).
A special section of Martini’s private collection consisted of books,manuscripts and other documents and pertaining to Lucca, which he always intended to donate to his native town and which was indeed given to the Biblioteca e Archivio Capitolare of Lucca after his death. Other parts of his collection were dispersed and can now be found in various private and institutional libraries; the most complete collection of Martini’s sale catalogues is now in the Cattolica University of Milan. Martini used a number of ex-libris (in the form of both stamps and book-labels) where the figures of Athena and Fortune e often depicted. A complete list of the ex-libris, with reproductions, can be found in the catalogue of the exhibition organised in Lucca in 2014 in memory of Martini and published as appendix to the proceedings of the conference held on the same occasion: Da Lucca a New York a Lugano. Giuseppe Marini librario tra Otto e Novecento. Atti del Convegno (Lucca, 17-18 ottobre 2014), ed. Edoardo Barbieri ( Firenze: Olschki, 2017).
See also: Bibliofilia, 3 (1902), 76-7 (for Martini's conviction for theft) and Bibliothèque Joseph Martini, ouvrages provenants de la bibliothèque particulière de M. Joseph Martini et décrits par lui-même (Ulrico Hoepli (Milan), 27-29 Aug. 1934, Lucerne: 21-23 May 1935, Zurich; digital copies of these and the catalogue of incunabula are available here: http://libriantiqui.it/risorse-in-pdf/item/15-giuseppe-martini-cataloghi-1934-1935-libreria-e-vendita. [A. Panzanelli]
Variant NamesMartini, Joseph
Other Identifierhttp://thesaurus.cerl.org/record/cnp01257482
https://aeolus.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/collections/incunables/provenances_for_mei.xml#xpointer(//*[@id=
https://lccn.loc.gov/nr99009017
Activity
Start (year)1890
End (year)1900
MARC Area Codee-it
Profession / Type of InstitutionBooktrade
CharacterisationNo characterisation/lay
Activity
Start (year)1901
End (year)1924
MARC Area Coden-us
PlaceNew York (Geonames Id: 5128581)
Profession / Type of InstitutionBooktrade
CharacterisationNo characterisation/lay
Activity
Start (year)1928
End (year)1944
MARC Area Codee-sz
Profession / Type of InstitutionBooktrade
CharacterisationNo characterisation/lay
Last Edit2019-05-17 17:48:10