The Italian Settecento
Ariosto, Lodovico. [Opere] Orlando furioso ... delle annotazioni de' più celebri autori che sopra esso hanno scritto, e di altre utili, e vaghe giunte in questa impressione adornato, come nell'indice seguente la prefazione si vede. Venice: Stefano Orlandini, 1730. $5,000
Folio (39 cm); 2 volumes: [50], 576; [4] 400 pages, and 52 engraved plates. Half title present, first title printed in red and black, with engraved vignette on title page. Full-page portrait of the author by C. Orsolini. Second title within engraved border by Giuseppe Filosi. Section title to the Commedia within woodcut allegorical border. Fifty-one full-page engravings by Filosi and by Giuliano Giampicoli, within one of 3 elaborate borders, one signed Filosi. Woodcut head- and tailpieces. Bound in recent quarter leather over buckram-covered boards, with seven panel, leather title labels in period style. Bright and crisp impressions, clean and fresh text.
References: Morazzoni 213; Gamba 60; Brunet I,437; Graesse I,199; Melzi 173; Agnelli Ravegnani I,3.
Splendid illustrated edition of Ariosto's works, considered the culmination of 17th-century baroque styles of Venetian book design and the first emergence of the 18th-century neoclassical flowering. This copy features strong, clean impressions of the plates, including the Orsolini's great portrait, and fifty-one elaborate, full-page allegories ahead of each canto of Orlando Furioso (which occupies the entire first volume) and the Cinque Canti. The contents of the second volume also include the seven comedies, the epistle to Bembo, the satires, L'Erbolato, and poetry in Italian and Latin.
[Arcadia] Carlo
Innocenzo Frugoni; Francesco Algarotti; Saverio Bettinelli. Versi sciolti di tre eccellenti moderni autori. Bassano:
Remondini, 1795.
16cm; 298 pages. Bound in original publisher’s boards. Boards worn with worm trails
present at joints and extending to first two leaves of text. Text somewhat shaken in binding. A few leaves are dog-eared, but text is generally
clean. Book bears several manuscript ownership
marks of Carlo de Herra (fl. 1800-1850). De Herra apparently
owned the book in his youth, and claimed it by writing his name on the upper board (dated
1791), and on all three edges of the text block. The
book is protected by contemporary wrappers fashioned out of an envelope addressed to Ferdinando de Herra, with remains of
original red wax seal. Pen
trials on upper flap of wrapper. (4208) $100.00
Verse epistles by three of Arcadia’s most representative voices. The Accademia degli Arcadi was a literary
fraternity (and by imitation, a literary style) established at the end of the 17th
century with the aim of replacing extravagant baroque fashions with more serious and
rational expression. This collection
first appeared in mid century, and was frequently reprinted.
Bisso, Giambatista (1712-1787). Introduzione alla volgar poesia.
Venice: Presso G. Orlandeli,
1791.
4. ed. molto migliorata, ed accresciuta dall’autore, spezialmente d’un nuovo
libro della poesia teatrale antica e moderna. 19cm; xvi, 271
pages. Woodcut ornaments.
Contemporary vellum over boards.
Few spots.
About very good. (4223)
$100.00
An eighteenth-century “ars
poetica”
for Italian writers, including detailed analyses of prosody, rhyme, tropes, and even a
prophetic chapter on “dialogism.”
This
edition was expanded to include a discourse on dramatic poetry.
Appended is a dictionary of iconology and an essay
on “Rhyme and Prose” by Scipione
Maffei.
Boccalini, Traiano (1556-1613) ;
Girolamo Briani (1581-1646).
De’ Ragguagli di
Parnaso. In questa quinta
impressione da molti errori diligentemente espurgata. In Venetia: Appresso gli
heredi di Gio. Guerigli, 1630.
4° (22cm); 3 parts in two volumes.
Printer’s device on title pages.
Woodcut initials and ornaments.
Bound
in contemporary stiff vellum, titled in manuscript on spine.
Shelf wear and dust.
Light damp marks present.
Early
ownership inscriptions canceled on front blank.
References: Gamba, 1802 (1624 ed.);
Vinciana 3567.
(4180) $300.00
Born in Loreto,
Boccalini embarked on a political career and
actually served briefly as governor of Benevento.
He railed against the domination of Italy by Spain,
France and Austria. In 1605 he began to
publish his barbed “dispatches” (ragguagli), which
numbered more than 300 by the time of his sudden death (poison?) in 1613.
The author imagined Parnassus as a city in
continuous vacation, where poets and politicians meet.
He pretends to send reports from this city on a large variety of themes, but mainly
on politics. The anti-Spanish satire becomes
truly ferocious.
Magalotti, Lorenzo (1637-1712). Lettere familiari... con le annotazione del Domenico Maria Manni.
Venice: Presso Giambatista Pasquali, 1762.
20cm; xvi, 680 pages, and engraved frontispiece numismatic portrait.
Printer’s device on
title page. Woodcut initials.
Bound in full vellum over
boards.
Titled in
manuscript on spine, with paper shelf label.
Scattered foxing.
(4201) $125.00
Scientist and man of letters, courtier and diplomat in the service of the Medici,
Magalotti was secretary of the Accademia
del Cimento, and in 1667 he edited
the Saggi di
Naturali Esperienze (Essays on
natural experiments), recounting the academicians’ most notable experiments. He
traveled extensively as a diplomat for the Grand Dukes of Tuscany.
In 1678, a sudden break in his relations with the
Medici interrupted his career and journeys. Magalotti retired
for a decade from public life, dedicating himself to writing the
Lettere familiari, published posthumously in Venice in 1719.
These essays seem to question the cognitive
limits of science, and to pose the merits of traditional Catholicism against Atheism.
One recognizes the seeds of the “Intelligent
Design” argument.
First collected edition. 22 cm; 4 volumes. Title page of volume 1 printed in red and black. Engraved portrait frontispiece in volume 1. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Bound in contemporary full vellum with titles burnished in gilt on spines. Spines discolored by sunlight. Few worm trails in bindings, especially volume IV. Upper hinge splitting in volume III. Text bright and clean with few marks or blemishes. Reference: Gamba, 673. $500
An uncomfortable priest, Menzini wrote fierce attacks on the hypocracies of his profession, as well as classically-fashioned odes, canzoni, sonnets, elegies and satires. This collection, edited by Pietro Mengoni, includes a life of the author by Giuseppe Paolucci.
Muratori,
Lodovico Antonio (1672-1750).
Della pubblica felicità oggetto
de’ buoni principi.
[Modena]: 1749.
19 cm; [20], 408 pages.
Date and publisher location from salutation after preface.
Bound in later polished calf over marbled boards,
spine decorated in gilt.
Worn
at extremities. Text pages browned.
Reference: Kress 4974. (4232)
$250.00
One of several editions published in 1749; priority among them is unclear.
The librarian-philosopher who sought to reconcile
the principles of Enlightenment with Catholicism here applies his vast erudition to
questions of political economy and the function of government.
Muratori, Lodovico Antonio (1672-1750).
Delle forze dell’ intendimento umano, o sia, il pirronismo
confutato... Venice: Giambat[t]ista
Pasquali, 1772.
Fourth edition.
19cm; xx, 272, [2] pages.
Publisher’s device
on title page.
Bound
in contemporary marbled paper over boards, with leather label titled in gilt on spine.
Speckled edges.
Insiginificant worm trails on boards; small abrasion on title page,
else unblemished.
(4166)
$120.00
An argument defending human reason against the
fideist,
anti-Cartesian essay by Pierre-Daniel Huet,
Traité philosophique de la
foiblesse de l’esprit
humain (An Essay Concerning the Weakness of Human
Understanding, 1723).
Muratori
was certainly Huet’s equal in
the breadth and depth of his studies, and in his
vast command of the literatures.
Muratori, Lodovico Antonio (1672-1750); Giangiuseppe Orsi
(1652-1733). Memorie intorno alla vita del marchese
Giovan Gioseffo Orsi, Bolognese. Modena: Bartolomeo Soliani, 1735.
First edition. Octavo (19 cm); [4] 117 [3] pages; first two pages blank. Three
parts, each with separate title page, continuously paginated. Woodcut putto
device on two title pages; woodcut initial and ornaments. Bound in 1/4 vellum
over pasteboard, titled in manuscript on spine. Scattered foxing, yet sound,
clean and entire.
Orsi's main contribution to the Italian enlightenment resided in his pamphlet
war with the French Jesuit chauvinist Dominique Bouhours at the beginning of the
18th century. Bouhours argued for the universality of the French language and
the superiority of the French spirit. Here the librarian-philosopher Lodovico
Antonio Muratori presents an impassioned eulogy for his intellectual
predecessor, recently dead, and edits his surviving poetry. The 39-page
introduction is followed by Orsi's poems, and then by a collection of memorial
sonnets by Muratori, Tassoni, Zanotti and others.
(4794) $400.00
Muratori, Lodovico Antonio (1672-1750).
La vita del Padre Paolo
Segneri juniore della Compagnia di Gesu. S’aggiungono alcune Operette Spirituali
composte dal medesimo religioso ... Modena:
Bartolomeo Soliani, 1720.
17 cm; xx, 459 pages.
Woodcut initial.
Lacks portrait.
Bound in later vellum over boards.
Good condition.
(4233)
$95.00
Petrarca,
Francesco ; Alessandro Tassoni ; Girolamo Muzio ; Ludovico Antonio Muratori. ...Le Rime ... riscontrate co i testi a penna della Libreria Estense, e
co i fragmenti dell'Originale d'esso Poeta.... Modena: Bartolomeo Soliani,
1711.
4to (23 cm); xxxv, [1], 860 pages. Woodcut device on title page. Woodcut initial. Bound in
earlier vellum (remboitage) pressed into service for which it was not quite ample. As a
result, the gutter has split between the first and second leaves, holding by strained
threads. Titled in manuscript on spine. Light damp stains at beginning and end of text.
Reference: Brunet: IV, 553 ("toujours recherchée"). $225
First printing of the Muratori/Tassoni edition of Petrarch, which placed the two leading
literary figures into something of a editorial competition. Each poem in the Canzoniere is
followed by Muratori's and Tassoni's comments (along with Muzio's 16th-century notes),
which occasionally agree. One laments the unfortunate binding (a decision made in the
18th-century by someone trying to be thrifty), but the book is important.
Roberti, Giovanni Battista (1719-1786).
Cento favole esopiane ... dedicate al merito sommo di sua
Eccellenza la Marchesa Donna Margarita. Como:
Nella stamperia
Scotti, 1781.
First edition.
17cm; [2], 8, 228 pages.
Woodcut and typographic
ornaments and initials, including typographic running headers,
fleurons,
tail pieces.
Bound
in full mottled calf tooled in gilt on spine, worn at edges and extremities with some loss
at crown. Contemporary decorated paper
pastedowns. Title page browned and
abraded at gutter (the result of an old repair?).
Cello tape repair to leaf *2.
Some browning at gutter of last leaves.
Else only occasional spots, stains or worm trails,
mostly in margins. References:
Parenti 431 (following error of Gamba,
2420, which cites the Bassano 1782 edition). (4189)
$250.00
Satiric and serious poems by the Jesuit philosopher who tried to justify Catholicism and
the Enlightenment. The poems are
Aesopian fantasies with modern implications (“the Nightingale in America,” for
instance, or “The Mushrooms and the Lemon.”
This is the true first edition, preceding the Bassano
edition cited as the first by Gamba and
Parenti.
Roberti, Giovanni Battista (1719-1786).
Lettera del Signor Conte Abate Giambatista Roberti sul
prendere, come dicono, l’aria, e il sole.
N.p.: [1776?].
Edizione seconda.
19cm; 74 pages.
Fine
engraved historiated initial showing a
putto
holding an open book while riding a scallop shell off-shore with the sun at the horizon.
Bound in contemporary decorated
paste paper wraps.
Wraps
splitting at spine, with some loss; first quire almost loose.
(4231)
$175.00
Essay in letter form on the healing power of Nature, and on the beneficial aspects of sun
bathing and breathing clean air.
Saccenti, Giovan Santi (d.
1749). Le rime di Giovan Santi Saccenti da Cerreto Guidi
accademico sepolto con le note di U.P.D.C. Florence: Gaspero Ricci, 1808.
“Prima edizione fiorentina, corretta ed accresciuta di altre Rime finora
inedite” (First Florence edition, revised and enlarged with previously unpublished
poems). 16cm; 2 volumes in one.
270;
296 pages.
Bound
for utility in green polished calf over marbled boards, worn at edges and extremities.
Titled in gilt on spine, with
shelf label in manuscript.
Hinges split but holding.
Occasional marginalia in manuscript.
References: Melzi 3:446 (glossing
“U.P.D.C.” as “Un Prete di Cerreto,” and identifying him as Nicola
Saccenti; Gamba, 2425, note (“queste poesie ... danno
buona copia di voci e di graziosi modi di dire”).
(4167)
$100.00
Giovanni Santi
Saccenti is a
beacon for all who are brilliant, sharp, wise, full of the poetic gift, and yet excluded
from financial or social success.
Saccenti made his living as an itinerant notary.
While he lived, he read his poems-shiny as knives
and sharper-to great acclaim at gatherings for friends.
They circulated in manuscript for a dozen years after his death before appearing in
print, full of mistakes, in 1761. Satires in
the tradition of Juvenal and Persius, but informed by
Enlightenment sensibilities, the collection also includes a “version” in modern
dress of Horace’s Ars poetica,
and a mock epic entitled Il Vezzoso (“The Dandy”).
The present edition claims priority in Florence,
capital of the poet’s native region.
Tesauro, Emanuele
(1592-1675). La
filosofia morale : derivata dall’alto fonte del grande Aristotele Stagirita.
Macerata: Giuseppe Piccini, 1675.
15cm; [12], 707, [1] pages.
Printer’s woodcut device on last page.
Typographic initials and
ornaments. Bound in contemporary stiff
vellum, somewhat worn.
Spine
a little weak. Pages evenly toned with
few darker sections. Early owner’s name
and stamp on title page.
Vinciana 2264 (1681 edition).
(4186) $125.00
An elegant survey of 17th-century ethics.
“A lively, uncluttered,
and mildly Christianized summary of Aristotle’s doctrines,” according to the
Cambridge History of Seventeenth Century Philosophy.
It went through 27 editions in its first hundred years, and was translated into
several European languages including Russian.
Zanotti, Francesco Maria
(1692-1777). Dell’arte poetica ragionamenti cinque. Bologna:
Lelio dalla Volpe, 1768.
First edition. 22cm; xii, 401, [1] pages.
Printer’s vignette on
title page.
Bound
in contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards.
Extremities quite worn, marble paper pulled away from base of upper board with
loss. Text rather clean,
with negligible foxing at first and last pages.
Refrence: Gamba 2514 (citing Parini,
“nulla v’ha di simile fra le Poetiche moderne”).
(4181)
$150.00
Zanotti, Francesco Maria (1692-1777).
Raccolta di alcune poesie volgari e latine.
Milano: Giuseppe Marelli, 1774.
12mo (16cm); 118 pages.
Attractive woodcut and typographic ornaments.
Bound
in full mottled calf, tooled in gilt on spine.
Binding somewhat worn, hinges split but holding.
Text shaken in binding.
Speckled edges.
(4202)
$75.00
Graceful 18th-century poetry on philosophical and political themes in Italian
and Latin.