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QUATTRAMI EVANGELISTA, da Gubbio (Italian, 1523-?). La Vera Dichiarantione. Rome, ca. 1591. 8vo. Contemporary vellum binding with handwritten title on spine. Frontispiece illustration of Marco Bragadino, con man and self-declared alchemist, dated 1591. Contemporary owner’s notes on title page and in margins throughout. Evidence of insect damage to pages 203 onwards. Rare example. Marco Bragadino was a con man and self-declared alchemist who presented himself to the Republic of Venice as the illegitimate son of military hero Marco Antonio Bragadin. Throughout the 1570s he consulted with Grand Duchess Bianca Cappello, wife of Francesco I d’Medici, whom he told he could cure of her infertility using the philosopher’s stone. His claims of converting base metals into gold won him many notable friends, among the most influential being the Duke of Mantua. So famous did he become that the Republic of Venice invited him to put his alchemic talents to use for the government, however when he failed to create the promised gold he fled the city. Shortly after he was summoned to Landshut, Bavaria, by the very much in debt William V, Duke of Bavaria. Once again Bragadino failed to produce, and so the Duke ordered his execution. When La Vera Dichiarantione was printed it caused such a furor that many copies were bought by Bragadino’s admirers just so they could be destroyed.