AZZOGUIDI, BALDASSARRE. - A noble citizen of Bologna, born in the decade between 1430 and 1440. He was the first to introduce the art of printing into Bologna, associating with himself in the enterprise the humanist Francesco Dal Pozzo and Annibale Malpigli; the former was charged with selecting the works to be printed and correcting the proofs, the latter with carrying out the material work. The first work issued from his presses, a text of Ovid, bears the date 1471, with this colophon: « Balthesar Azoguidus Civis Bononiensis honestissimo loco natus primus in sua civitate artis impressoriae inventor... ad utilitatem humani generis impressit; MCCCCLXXI ». A. continued his activity until 1480, when adverse circumstances compelled him to abandon the enterprise. Among his editions, numbering about thirty and in Roman type, those of particular value for their rarity are the Vita di Guerino cognominato Meschino (1475), the Statuta Civilia Communis Bononiae (1476), and Boccaccio’s Decamerone (1476).
AZZOLINI DECIO — Portrait by J. F. Voet (17th century).
Berlin, Kaiser Friedrich Museum.
The list of editions is found in D. Reichling, Appendices ad Hainii Copingeri Repertorium bibliographicum, Munich 1911, pp. 135–36.