Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.archive.org/details/develoitalianlitOOgrolrich The Publication Committee of the Grolier Club certifies that this copy of a "Catalogue of an Exhibition of Early and Original Editions of Italian Books " is one of an edition of three hundred and six copies, on hand-made paper, of which two are for the Club library, two for copyright, and two for presentation, and that all were printed in the month of January, 1904. Catalogue of an Exhibition of Original and Early Editions of Italian Books Selected from a Collection designed to illustrate the Development of Italian Literature New Tork The Grolier Club 1904 ^^' ^^x tCfl Copyright, 1904, by The Grolier Club of the City of New York Address of Marion Crawford, Esq. Delivered before the members of the Grolier Club on the occasion of the opening of the Exhibition of Italian Books Address of Marion Crawford, Esq. IT is manifestly impossible to give a sketch of such a subject as Italian literatiire from the thirteenth century to the seventeenth within the limits accorded to me. It has been justly said that Hterature developed somewhat later in Italy than in some other European countries; but the slowness of the develop- ment was more than compensated by the variety exhibited in the subsequent growth. For instance, even in the wide domain of English letters it would be hard to name three writers of attainments and natural gifts so varied as Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch, all alive at the same time. Or, to take those usually designated as the foirr great poets, Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto, and Tasso, can any other nation show four writers of verse, all admittedly great, yet all so notably individual and different in manner ? Or, again, take Sa- yonarola, Pietro Aretino, and Macchiavelli : the first, the religious enthusiast, perhaps the fanatic ; Aretino, the satirical unbeliever, the Petronius of his day ; MacchiavelH, the cour- vii Address of Marion Crawford tier, whose name has become a by-word for tortuous intrigue, who was neither for good nor against it, neither against evil nor for it, but only, in his greatest book, for the absolute rule of his ideal, Caesar Borgia. In the attempt to grasp and understand such varied personalities, and to carry in the mem- ory something of the writings of each, the mind becomes dazed and confused. I shall there- fore not attempt to do more than give a very slight account of a few among the great lead- ers of Italian literature, with whom most of you, I have no doubt, have more than a pass- ing acquaintance. Dante really comes first; but before him we find upon the catalogue of works before us the name of Brunetto Latini, Dante's teacher, and also the instructor of Dante's friend and fellow-poet, Gviido Cavalcanti. No plodding schoolmaster was he, nor priestly teacher of the mediaeval type. He was a man full of the spirit of his times; a Guelph of the Guelphs, and their ambassa- dor to Alfonso of Castile; not only a man famous in letters, but a model of prudence and wisdom in public affairs ; an exile, too, after the terrible defeat which drove the Guelphs from Florence, hither and thither and homeless, throughout Italy and Eiu-ope ; viii Address of Marion Crawford a man, moreover, who wrote as easily in the French language as in his own, and as readily in Latin as in either. He filled Dante's young intelHgence with thoughts high and mature, so that the great pupil began to think, as it were, at the high-water mark of the teacher's wisdom. Brunetto died when Dante was but nineteen years old and had only given the first warning of his genius in a few of the sonnets and canzoni of the Vita Nuova. The book itself did not take shape till he was twenty-five. The poet's youth, says Ugolini, was spent between study, love, and arms, which are the fountains of wisdom, gentleness, and strength. In study he surpassed all the men of his time, and in those days it was really possible to know all that could be known. The Vita Nuova, the Divine Comedy, and the prose writings of Dante exhibit a knowledge of nature, of books, and of mankind which has rarely been equalled in any age and has probably never been surpassed. There was hardly a single law of natiu-e known in the thirteenth century which Dante did not at one time or another expound, explain, and broaden according to his hghts. There was no question of reHgious belief, of conduct, or of general morality which he did not touch upon iz Address of Marion Crawford and beautify. There was hardly an episode in the history of his century which he did not present in a new and striking light. His eminence as a man of learning places him without doubt above all the leading men of his day, and yet when we pronounce the name of Dante we associate it neither with science, nor with language, nor with history ; we couple it with another name, without which his own seems incomplete, and in our imaginations his shade rises from the past hand in hand with the spirit of Beatrice. We forget the man of learning, we are almost ready to overlook the poet; we see most clearly, after six hundred years, the inspired lover of the Vita Nuova and of the conclud- ing cantos of the Purgatory. The Iliad of Homer is the greatest love- story of the world. The wrath of Achilles at being robbed of the beloved Briseis fills it from end to end, and the woes of the Greeks avenge a thousandfold the heartaches of the hero ; nor is he appeased at last until the lovely captive is brought back to him un- scathed from the tent of the king. Dante's love-story is told in the Vita Nuova, but his great love-poem is the Divine Comedy itself. Scholars have discussed the identity, the character, and the influence of Beatrice Address of Marion Crawford for centuries, and we are to-day no nearer to knowing who she was than was Boccaccio him- self. But one thing we do know : that Dante loved her, and that it was love of her that inspired him throughout the greatest task ever begun and accomplished by a poet. Many of us who, for one reason or another, have spent time in trying to find out the truth about Dante's life are convinced that the lady of his love was not Beatrice Portinari, the fair daughter of his father's neighbor, nor any Beatrice at all; and that he merely al- lowed his friends to believe that it was she in order to conceal her true name altogether. Many of us are inclined to believe that there was some deep-seated reason in the poet's life wherefore he "fell, as fall the dead," when Francesca of Rimini had told him her tragic story in the lull of the infernal gales. We know something of the man's nature from his contemporaries. He was passion- ate, headstrong, and wayward in his youth, as many a great poet has been. He was most unlike the timid and gentle lover of the Vita Nuova in his outward life, and yet somehow we know that his true story, dark, tragic perhaps, and certainly mysterious, is hidden somewhere in the language of those exquisite pages ; and we know that it was the 3d Address of Marion Crawford dead woman who inspired him with the strong wish to say of her "such things as no man had ever said of woman" since the world began, and that the thought of her was with him in his exile, in his work, in his lonely life, to the end. So much for the years of his youth spent in study and love ; but Ugo- lini speaks of arms also. Fighting was but an episode in the poet's life, at a time when few men who boasted themselves good citi- zens could escape military service altogether. He was present in at least one decisive bat- tle, at Campaldino, which was a hard-fought field, and what he saw there remained indeli- bly impressed upon his memory ; for fighting was fighting in those days. A soldier said the other day that all he had seen of a battle was a great deal of smoke and the back of the man in front of him. In the thirteenth centiuy there was no smoke, and men fought hand to hand, cut and thrust, and hacked each other and each other's horses with swords and axes. More than once in the course of his great poem Dante describes scenes of carnage, and there is always in his description the smre touch of the eye-witness ; so that it is fair enough to say that what formed a part of his experience was in the end a part of his education. He lived in a zii Address of Marion Crawford time of great changes, and on the eve of a great revival. His figure stands on the threshold of the Renaissance; his influence began before it, contributed to its growth, and was felt long after it had produced a new era of thought and literatiire. He was acknowledged to be great while he was liv- ing, and not long after his death he was looked upon as the greatest. He made the language in which he wrote, for he was the first who dared to give the world at large his thoughts in his native tongue, instead of in barbarous Latin. He made the language, and made it so well that hundreds of his verses are familiar to men and women of our own time all over the world, and not famil- iar as archaisms or curiosities either, but as the poetry of a living language. The same cannot be said of any other writer in any other country whose works date from the year 1300, and in this respect it is not too much to say that in him Italian literature at once took the lead of all others by producing great masterpieces, which are still not only beautiful but comprehensible to any one pos- sessed of an ordinary knowledge of the mod- em language. The Renaissance came in- deed, the great revival of European learning, the love for the classics, which produced xiii Address of Marion Crawford books that were very nearly classic in form, if not in substance; but the great men still followed the great leader, and no great poet ever again made it a rule to express himself in Latin. What is most remarkable in the careers of all men of genius is the immense reach of their first efforts, the vast stride which takes them at the very first out of ob- scurity into the full blaze of fame. Of this there is no more striking instance than Dante's life. Long before printing was invented his books were read throughout Italy and in other parts of Europe. Long before the Paradise was finished a hundred passages of his Inferno were household words in his own country. Long before he had reached the end of his career he knew that he had won immortality, and he said justly, in the se- rene certainty of genius, that he, too, like Horace, had raised up a monument to him- self more enduring than bronze. Like all the greatest writers, he founded a school, and the school he founded was one of the most enduring that has ever flourished. He did not escape criticism, but he was beyond competition. Fastidious men of letters after- wards called his verses harsh, rough, clumsy ; but they were monumental, they endvu"ed, and he endures in them even to our own time, xiv Address of Marion Crawford The life of Petrarch resembles that of Dante inasmuch as it was founded upon the pursuit of learning and beautified by the love of a good woman, in whom the poet dis- covered his ideal, and who died young, while he was in the full possession of his poetical gifts. In all other respects the lives of the two men are strongly contrasted. Dante's character passed through phases of fierceness, melancholy, and bitterness. He was a lay- man, he was for a time a soldier, he belonged to the losing faction of his day, he was an exile. Petrarch was gentle, artistic, sweet- tempered, a priestly courtier. He was a temperate ambassador, a man willing to ac- cept the times as they were, not without hope of bettering them, but altogether without Dante's furious longing to destroy injustice, even at the risk of destroying justice too. Dante's love was an inspiration, a main- spring, a strength. Petrarch's was an object in itself, a deity in his temple, the idol of his shrine. Petrarch's best works are the expres- sion of his devotion to Laura, they are the exquisite setting of his jewel, they are the canvas and the colors of a woman's portrait, they are the " vehicle " of beauty. But Dante's masterpiece embraced the world it- self, found that world too small, plunged into Address of Marion Crawford Hell, and rose again to the outer firmament of Heaven. It is almost impossible to imagine two men more completely contrasted. If there is any- thing in handwriting to denote the character of the writer, the autographs of Dante and Petrarch must be striking examples of the science. Dante's writing is angular, cramped, upright, and original. Petrarch's was famous for its beauty even in his own day. It is only necessary to say that the first Italian book which issued from the Aldine press, and which was a volume of Petrarch's works, was printed with type cut to imitate the author's hand- writing, and that this type has come down to us in the present day under the name of " italic." It was a careful, scrupulously neat and even character, such as any one of us would be glad to write, if only for the sake of clearness. There is a fine copy of this book in the collection before us, also three beautiful MSS. and a copy of the first folio of the complete works. Dante was thirty-nine years old when Petrarch was bom. When Boccaccio came into the world Petrarch was nine, and Dante still had eight years to live. When Boccaccio was grown up Dante was already looked upon as the Italian classic, and Boccaccio in his xvi Address of Marion Crawford last years occupied the chair of professor, as expounder of Dante's works, in the Univer- sity of Florence. Within two lifetimes a whole epoch passes before us, from the founder of Italian literature, rough-hewing his way out of darkness, to the most graceful love-poet of any country or age; and from him again to the incomparable novelist, the author of the Fiammetta, of the Amorous Vision, and of the Decameron itself. Boccaccio was both a prose writer and a poet, and in his own voluminous writings is found the transition from the metrical ro- mance to the prose novel. He is by many considered to have invented the stanza of eight lines, commonly known in Italian as the "ottava rima," in which the epics of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso were afterwards written. He also attempted to imitate Dante in the "terza rima," or three-lined stanza, but without success, and he ultimately found the natural expression of his genius in the harmonious prose of the Decameron. He was neither a political exile, like Dante, nor a prosperous covirtier, like Petrarch ; he was a poor literary man, who enjoyed the fa- vor of sovereigns at intervals, from time to time; and Petrarch left him a small sum of money by will for the express purpose of xvii Address of Marion Crawford buying himself a fur coat to keep him warm when he was studying at night. He was af- flicted also in his latter years by an unsightly disease of the face, which made him shun company and daylight; though neither this nor his other troubles seem to have affected the brilliant gayety of his talent, which was the foundation of his enduring fame. Popular opinion has been unjust to him. In the minds of the average public the De- cameron is supposed to be a collection of tales, anything but moral, not always decent, and generally high-flavored. This is far from being the case. The work, doubtless, con- tains a few stories which deserve any of the epithets I have mentioned, and these have sufficed to give the book a bad name, but it contains many of a very different and more refined nature. I possess an old expurgated edition of the Decameron, and while, as a man of letters, I disapprove of " Bowdleriz- ing " anything worth reading at all, I must admit that in this instance the result is a dis- tinct gain to the literature which we may place in the hands of our wives and daughters. Yet considering the age in which he lived and the natiu-e of polite conversation in his time, Boccaccio must be reckoned one of the most refined among his contemporaries. xviii Address of Marion Crawford The Decameron is a collection of what we should call short stories, depicting in bril- liant colors the elegant and sensuous exis- tence in which the young author played a part. But though young, and an author, he was en- dowed with worldly wisdom and clear sight, and the book is a mirror of life in the four- teenth century, with its gay and sad adven- tures, its romantic meetings and partings, its quick wit, and its elaborate courtesy. We find in the tales the grace of unusual yet pos- sible plots, dramatic movement, irony, an in- dulgent spirit towards human weakness, and withal the expression of a true sense of manly honor. The difference between those days and ours is this : the Decameron was written for the women of the fourteenth century; it is read by the men of the twentieth. Boccaccio iS one of the earliest instances of a type common among literary men ever since. He was gay, but he was not vicious. He sometimes earned money, but was utterly incapable of keeping it. He occupied more than one brilliant position during his life, but he ended his days in his native town in the studious and dignified retirement of unde- served poverty. As an instance of the completeness of the collection of books before us, I should like xix Address of Marion Crawford to call your attention to the fact that among the examples of his works are to be found a manuscript of his book on Mountains, Rivers and Woods, the first edition of it in Latin, and the first Italian translation. Following the pages of this most interest- ing catalogue the eye is soon arrested by the name of Lorenzo de' Medici. Near his stands that of Politian, the companion of Lorenzo's studies, and afterwards the tutor of his chil- dren; Boiardo's name is there, and not far from it those of Savonarola and Nicholas MacchiaveUi. The Florentines of to-day are fond of saying that Florence would have been as great if it had never been ruled by the race whose name is inseparably associated with hers. This may or may not be true, and at the best all such truths are relative. But even the Florentines cannot deny the im- mense influence of the Medici in the advance- ment of art and learning. Lorenzo the Mag- nificent hved but forty-fom- years, Politian hved only forty, Savonarola forty-six, and MacchiaveUi, the most long-lived of the four, was just fifty-eight when he fell ill and died. It seems nothing short of marvellous to us that the men who left such names behind them should have earned fame in so short a career, the one as a poet and a ruler of men, the next Address of Marion Cratvford as a poet and a grammarian, the third as a re- former, a preacher, a patriot, and perhaps a saint, and the last as the father of a school of policy. I think it was in 1863 that Bis- marck, being called to take the direction of Prussian affairs, said to his wife : " My dear, I am too old. My active career is over." His life was in reality before him, at the age when Lorenzo de' Medici and Savonarola had reached the end of theirs. Yet apart from the position which he assumed and held among the princes of Europe, Lorenzo earned the right to be counted among the chief poets of his century, and his love-lyrics still hold their own in the Italian language. It is not to his discredit if he imitated his friend Poli- tian, for Politian, in turn, did not hesitate to imitate him. Much of his work was truly origi- nal, bold, and passionate. His creations, when he allowed himself full freedom of expression, were alive with the blood of true poetry, in- stead of being filled with an artificial nectar brewed from the leavings of Greek and Latin gods. But it is above all as a man that he is remembered, the protector of students, poets, and artists ; the man who desired the friendship of Savonarola, but to whom Sa- vonarola refused to do homage, who sent for Savonarola on his death-bed, and to whom xxi Address of Marion Crawford the monk would not grant absolution unless Lorenzo would promise not to leave the lord- ship of Florence to be handed down in his own family ; last and not least, Lorenzo was the friend and protector of Michelangelo. Of Savonarola it is always hard to speak. Even at this late day partisans arise for him and against him ; in a breath he is called pa- triot and traitor, saint and heretic. His life began with a love-story and ended on the gallows, where he was hanged before his body was burnt. In the httle city of Ferrara, where he was bom, he fell hopelessly in love with a natural daughter of one of the Strozzi family exiled there. The girl did not return his love ; whether repelled by his strange fea- tures or the natural hardness of his manner, we do not know. Disappointed, he went to Florence without telling his parents of his in- tention, and entered the Dominican Order as a novice. Like many men who have left great names, his youth was a series of disap- pointments. He preached without success, he fought against the evils of his time, and failed to make any impression upon them ; but repeated failure hardened his hard character as blows harden steel. He persisted, he drew upon him the attention of Lorenzo at last, and the time came when those who had re- xxii Address of Marion Crawford fused to hear him hung upon the words that fell from his lips. He fancied that he saw visions, and he believed in them ; some of his predictions were fulfilled, and the people called him a prophet. He Hved two lives, the one for his time strenuous, untiring, spot- less ; the other a life of mystic exaltation bor- dering on ecstasy. Among the rare works to be found in this collection are first editions of his various sermons, which, although writ- ten in Latin, were published only in ItaUan, and were chiefly preached in that language. The sermons are the man, vehement, exalted, full of the tyranny of conviction. It is impossible to speak of this period of Italian literature, as it would be unjust to comment ever so lightly upon the collection before us, without speaking of the poet Boiardo, the author of the Orlando Inna- morato. We have here, I think, all the rarest editions of his works, including the Venetian edition of 1543, of which only two other copies are known to exist in the world. It is a remarkable fact that no edition of Boiardo's works in their original shape was pubHshed from 1544 to 1830, the edition of 1545, which is here, being a sort of remould- ing of the original poem by the obscure poet Ludovico Domenichi. Address of Marion Crawford Boiardo was the first of the Italian poets to make use of the Carlovingian traditions in a romantic poem of chivaby. Without his work Ariosto would never have produced the Orlando Furioso nor is it likely that Tasso would have composed the Jerusalem. The work itself has been much criticized, ever since it was produced, for the carelessness of its style and the incorrectness of its language, not to mention the frequent use of words of the Lombard dialect, and phrases taken whole from the productions of market-place story- tellers. The work contains sixty-nine cantos, and was to have been considerably longer, but was cut short, as the author explains in the last stanza, because, while he was singing the "Orlando in Love," the French had set Italy in a blaze. The poem ends with a promise that if possible he will once more return to his hero and heroine ; but the writer was already near his end and did not live to continue his work. He was of gentle birth, and bore the title of " Count of Scandiano." We learn that he was of very kind temper and very just in the administration of the many offices he held, beloved aUke by the princes he served and by the people he governed for them. There is no unity of action in his poem, nor any central interest to justify the endless Address of Marion Crawford episodes described ; but the work undoubtedly aroused an especial interest at the time, be- cause it described the struggles of Christian knights with Mohammedan champions, at a time when Mohammed II had quenched the ashes of the Eastern Empire in blood, and had filled eastern Europe with the terror of his name. Boiardo's knights fought with the strength of giants, but are always exquisitely courteous. They found themselves in en- chanted castles, their enemies assailed them with enchanted arms, enchanted rings set ladies' hearts beating for love, and ladies and knights alike drank at the enchanted foun- tains of love and hate. Yet there is much of humanity in the poem, and Italian critics say that it is a faithful representation of the court Ufe of the Dukes of Ferrara, where ancient, warlike, and feudal customs were softened by a young and enthusiastic cultiue of the beautiful. There is indeed something far more human in the personages of the poem than in those of the early epics, with a tendency to transplant the miraculous from the level of mere magic, and out of fairyland to the region of mystic and divine powers. Few of the most industrious readers of Italian literature have had the coiu^age and the patience to go through the sixty-nine cantos XXV Address of Marion Crawford to the end, yet with a slight acquaintance gained from reading a few pages of the poem we may easily convince ourselves of the value of Professor d'Ancona's criticism, the sub- stance of which I have given you here. Of the writers of whom I have spoken, per- haps at too great a length, it remains for me to say something of Nicholas Macchiavelli, often spoken of as the " Florentine Secre- tary," from his having held an office of Sec- retary under the RepubUc during fourteen consecutive years. He was removed from it on the return of the Medici to Florence in 1512, was accused of conspiracy, was im- prisoned and tortured, but was finally ac- quitted and set free. In spite of these circumstances, however, he succeeded several years later in ingratiating himself anew with the Medici family, but died of grief because, after they had been driven out again in 1527, he was unable to obtain the post of Secretary to the Council of War under their enemies. Such conduct was only too much in accord- ance with the spirit of the times, and Mac- chiavelli has too often been blamed for being no worse than thousands of his contempo- raries. He appears to have been a man of rich wit and poor fortune, since he left his wife and five children in a starving condition xxvi Address of Marion Crawford and endowed the world with writings of genius. He wrote upon a great variety of subjects, but he is best remembered by the work entitled the Prince, which was com- posed when he was at the height of his powers, and treated chiefly of his friend, pa- tron, and idol, Caesar Borgia. In reading this work, as in considering the life of the writer, common justice requires that we should remember the nature of the times in which the book was written. Moreover, if it be read carefully, and without yielding to the common traditional prejudice against Mac- chiavelli, it will be found that the principles advocated and the theories suggested are by no means so different from those of modern politics as might be supposed. I am not sure that a modem popular translation of the Principe, published under another title and without the author's name, might not be read with great interest and profit to them- selves, if not to others, by the politicians and diplomatists of our own times. The conclud- ing passionate exhortation to liberate Italy from the rule of strangers naturally endears the work to all patriotic Italians. The masterly style in which the work is composed, and the vast cultiue and learning it displays, would alone give it a foremost place in literature, xxvii Address of Marion Crawford To proceed even with such summary sketches of the great men whose books ap- pear in this beautiful collection would lead me too far. The names of Aretino, Castigli- one, Pulci, Ariosto, Tasso, Giordano Bruno, Galileo, and Sarpi would lead to a whole volume of interesting reflections. Here are the works of Bembo, poet, scholar, theolo- gian, and historian, who dominated Italian literature in the sixteenth century. Here is his own copy of one of his works, with notes in his own handwriting. Few realize the vast scope and reach of Italian literatuxe between 1300 and 1700. I do not hesitate to say that in value, and probably in extent, it comes next to the literature of the English language, if it does not equal it, and it cer- tainly surpasses that of France and Germany diuing the same time. It is of no use to in- quire into the causes of the literary inactiv- ity which succeeded such an extraordinary period of production. We may suppose that countries, like writers themselves, need inter- vals of intellectual rest after each new de- velopment and expression of thought, and if this is the case Italy has certainly earned her holiday. One is perhaps tempted to claim too much for her, and yet a vast deal may be claimed justly. For a long time she held the xxviii Address of Marion Crawford lead in literature, in painting, in architecture, and in engineering, and she still shows a vi- tality of invention which many younger coun- tries might envy. Of her modern literature it is not yet time to speak, and it has apparently become a canon law of our profession that no author shall speak of his living contemporaries ex- cept in terms of the highest praise. I came before you to talk of old books and of old writers, and I have tried to do so. The collection of original and early edi- tions of Italian books which we see exhibited here, and about which I have had the honor to speak, is one of the most complete private collections in the world. The number of rare first editions it contains is truly surpris- ing, and it is enriched by several precious manuscripts. It contains not a single vol- ume which could be spared, and few that the possessor would care to exchange for a du- plicate. The gathering of such a collection means love, learning, and labor, the triplicity which in Art stands for Faith, Hope, and Charity. The generous giver who is about to bestow this precious library upon Wellesley College has labored with hands of love, and he has labored long. Even in our time there are some things which money will neither Address of Marion Crawford buy nor bring. Money will buy labor. Money, with the condition of willingness, will help to procure learning. But money will not buy that love of good and beautiful things which, with labor and learning, brings forth new things both beautiful and good. For my own part, when I view this rich and rare collection, I am inclined to esteem the love of the subject which produced it even more highly than I value the books themselves. Marion Crawford. Introduction If Italy was late in developing a national literature, it was because she regarded the Latin language as her own peculiar heritage. Latin was the lingua aulica, the volgare being fit only for every-day life. With the persecution of the Albigenses Pro- vengal troubadours took refuge in Italy, es- pecially at the Sicilian court of Frederick II, where the ballad and the serventese were cultivated by the king and courtiers. This school fell with its patron, but its influence lived. In the last decades of the thirteenth century it inspired a group of young men who, to quote their leader : "Practiced the sweet and gracious rhymes of love " " in the sweet new style." Dante soon outstripped his companions, Guido xxxi Introduction Cavalcanti, Cino da Pistoja and Dante da Maiano. In the first century of her literary life Italy was favored in that three master minds of Tuscan birth took its dialect and rendered it capable of expressing every emo- tion : Dante, with his epic, Petrarch, with his lyrics and Boccaccio, with his prose fiction. The impulse given to classical study by Petrarch, followed by the introduction of Greek learning into Italy subsequent to the fall of Constantinople, was fostered by the wealthy, and by none more intelligently than by Cosimo de' Medici and his brilliant grand- son, Lorenzo. At their villa of Careggi gath- ered the Platonic Academy, with Poliziano, Ficino and the young Count Pico as leaders. To Careggi came Savonarola to exhort in vain at the owner's death-bed, and toward Careggi looked the young Machiavelli while preparing " to temper the sword of tyrants." With the sixteenth century classicism and dilettantism are at their height. The versa- xxxii Introduction tile Cardinal Bembo is their characteristic ex- ponent, the notorious Pietro Aretino their worst. One masterpiece, however, does ap- pear in this age — Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. The deeds of Charlemagne and his paladins exercised a strange fascination on the Italian imagination. The Reali di Francia is lis- tened to as eagerly to-day in Mulberry Bend as it was seven hundred years ago in the market-places of Florence or Palermo. Of the paladins Roland is the favorite. He is the hero of La Spagna and La Rotta di Roncisvalle. The flippant Pulci entertained Lorenzo de' Medici and his mother with his deeds, and the grave Boiardo edified the court of Ferrara with his love for Angelica. Boiardo's work was left unfinished ; Berni sought to improve upon it and almost lost sight of the original. Several wished to con- tinue the interrupted work, among these Ariosto, who alone produced a masterpiece. Such was the immediate popularity of the xxxiii Introduction Orlando Furioso that each of its characters became the hero of some more or less unin- teresting poem. The reaction against this fashion appears in such burlesques as Tas- soni's Secchia Rapita and, in lofty vein, Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata. After Tasso comes a rapid decline in liter- ary production. Despotic rule and the In- quisition were not conducive to free expres- sion, and the better minds of the seven- teenth century, Bruno, Sarpi, and GaUleo, succumbed. Margaret H. Jackson. xxxiv List of Facsimiles Alamanni, Luigi, page Opere Toscane, 1532 4 Ariosto, Lodovico, Orlando Furioso, 1526 11 Bembo, Pietro, Gli Asolani, 1515 15 Boccaccio, Giovanni, De Montibus, MS. of the XVth cent. . 31 Boccaccio, Giovanni, De Montibus, 1473 33 Boccaccio, Giovanni, Opera {x^^ot) 34 Bracciolini, lacopo di Poggio, Historia, 1547 40 Castiglione, Baldassare, II Libro del Cortegiano, 1528 . . . 45 Cellini, Benvenuto, Due Trattati, 1568 47 Colonna, Vittoria, Rime, 1539 50 XXXV List of Facsimiles Dante Alighieri, p^gg Convivio, 1490 54 Giraldi, Giovanni Battista (Cinthio), De Gli Hecatommithi, 1565 .... 63 Guerino il Meschino, 65 Latini, Brunette, Retorica, 1546 66 Machiavelli, Niccolo, Historie, 1550 69 Medici, Lorenzo de', Poesie Volgari, 1554 72 Petrarca, Francesco, Le Cose Volgari, 1501 ']'] Savonarola, Girolamo, Prediche, 1528 86 Savonarola, Girolamo, Expositione del Pater noster, 1494 . . 88 Tasso, Torquato, Gierusalemme Liberata, 1581 . . . 93 XXXVl Original and Early Editions of Italian Books For the material used as the basis of this catalogue the Club is indebted to Mr. Joseph Martini. Original and Early Editions of Italian Books Alamanni, Luigi, statesman and poet, was born at Florence in 1495. Having taken part in an unsuccessful conspiracy against Giulio de' Medici, afterwards Pope Clement VII, he was obliged to seek refuge in Venice and afterwards to flee to France. When Florence shook off the papal yoke Alamanni returned and took a prominent part in the manage- ment of the affairs of the republic. On the restoration of the Medici in 1530 he again took refuge in France, where he composed the greater part of his works. In Francis I he found a liberal patron, and was sent by him as ambassador to Charles V after the peace of Crespi in 1544. Upon the death of Francis he was patronized by Henry II, who sent him as ambas- sador to Genoa. He died at Amboise, April 18, 1556. His poems are distinguished by the purity and excellence of their style. Through Sir Thomas Wyatt, who imitated him, he exerted an influence upon Eng- lish poetry, I Opere Tosca | Ne Di Lvigi Alaman | Ni Al Christianis I Simo Re I Francesco I OPERE TOSCA NE DI JLVIGI ALAMAN NI AL CHRISTIANlS S I MO R E^ FRANCESCO P R I M O. NVTRISCO, ESTINGVO. ^^^^v^ SOVR OGNI VSO MORTAL. M' E' DATO ALB ergo. SB BAST. GRVPHIVS EXCVDEBAT L V G D. CON PRIVILEGE [ No. I ] Original and Early Editions of Italian Books Primo. [lyinter's mark] Sebast. Gryphivs I Excvdebat | Lvgd. | 1532 (-33) | Con Privilegi. Octavo. Two volumes. The first edition. The early editions of the Opere Toscane are very scarce. Niccold Franco asserts that Pope Clement VII ordered all the copies which appeared in Rome to be burned because of seditious teachings ; but this is undoubtedly a mistake, since the edition of Lyons bears the imprint : Con priuilegio della Santitd di N. S. P. P. Clemente VII. It is more credible, as Manni asserts, that the Florentine booksellers were condemned to pay fines for the sale of the work. 2 La Coltivatione Di | Lvigi Alamanni Al | Christianissimo Re | Francesco Primo. | yPrinter's mark] Stampato in Parigi da Ruberto Stephano | Regio Stampatore. | M.D.XLVI. I Con Privilegi. Quarto. The first edition. This didactic poem on agriculture, written in blank verse {versi sciolti), is Alamanni' s chief work, and Ginguen^, in his Histoire de la literature en Italie, says that the Coltivazione abounds in elegant imita- tions of Virgil's Georgics, and in true and poetical descriptions of the rural beauties of Italy and France. Garnett calls it an excellent example "of the de- scription of poetry which owes most to artifice and least to inspiration." s Original and Early Editions of Italian Books 3 Gyrone II Cortese Di | Lvigi Alamanni Al I Christianissimo, Et | Invittissimo Re Arri- I Go Secondo. | [FHnter's mark] Stampato in Parigi da Rinaldo Calderio, | Et Claudio suo figliuolo. | Con Privilegi. — {Colophon) Stampato in Parigi, TAnno 1 548 I Con Priuilegi per X. Anni, Quarto. The first edition. The Girone was written in imitation of the success- ful Orlando Furioso of Ariosto. It is, according to Ginguen6, ' ' a very dignified, very rational, and gen- erally well-written poem, but cold and consequently somewhat tiresome." 4 La I Avarchide | Del S. Lvigi Alamanni, | Gentilhuomo Fiorentino, | • • • \JPrinter''s mark] In Firenze | Nella Stamperia di Filippo Giunti, | e Fratelli. MDLXX. Quarto. Portrait. The first edition. The poem is taken from the romances of the Round Table, and tells of Lancelot's anger against King Arthur at the siege of Avaricum (Bourges). Albert!, Leone Battista, distinguished as a painter, poet, philosopher, musician, and especially as an architect, was born at Venice about 1404. He died at Rome in 1472 or 1484. 6 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books 5 Hecatomphila | DiMesserLeon | Battista Alberto Firentino, ne | laquale ne insegna lingenio | sa arte d'amore, mostran | done il perito modo | d'amare, oue di sem | pij, et rozzi, sag | gi, et gentili | ne fa di- | uenire. | M.D.XXXIIIL [Venice.] Octavo. A curious work on the deportment of young ladies. Aragona, Tullia d', the daughter of a courtezan called Giulia Campana, was born between 1505 and 1 5 ID, and lived during her youth at Rome; later she accompanied her mother to Siena, where she learned, says Mutio, ad essere virtuosa e a parlare senese. Coming back to Rome, she was introduced to the world of the courtezan, where she was surrounded by many admirers, among them Paolo Emilio Orsini, who, being rejected by her, contrived to drive her from the city. The rest of her adventurous life was spent in Venice, Ferrara, and Florence. She attracted to herself, wherever she went, the most prominent men of the time, writers, soldiers, and the nobility, but she died finally, forsaken by all, in 1556. Tullia d'Aragona resembled the courtezans of ancient Greece who were ennobled by poetry and spiritual endowments. For twenty years she gained the at- tention of her contemporaries, and her fame is that of one of the chief women writers of Italy. 6 II Meschino, | Altramente Detto | II Gverrino, | Fatto In Ottava Rima | Dal- la Signora TvUia | D'Aragona. | Opera, 7 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books Nella Qvale Si Veggono | & intendono le parti principali di tutto il mondo, | & molte altre diletteuolissime cose, da esser | sommamente care ad ogni sorte di | per- sona di bello ingegno. | Con Privilegio. | [Printer's mark] In Venetia, | Appresso Gio. Battista, Et Melchior | Sessa, Fratelli. M.D.LX. Quarto. The first edition. The subject of the poem is taken from a Spanish romance, which has never been printed, and, very- likely, is now lost. Aretino, Pietro, was bom about 1492 atArezzo, from which place he took his name. He received only a slight education, and lived for some years poor and neglected, picking up such scraps of information as he could. When very young, being banished from Arezzo on account of a satirical sonnet on in- dulgences, he went to Perugia, where for some time he worked as a bookbinder, and continued to dis- tinguish himself by his daring attacks upon religion. After some years' wandering through various parts of Italy he reached Rome, where his talents commended him to the Papal Court. This favor, however, he lost in 1524 by writing a set of obscene sonnets to ac- company a series of drawings by Giulio Romano and engraved by Marcantonio Raimondi. He left Rome and was received by Giovanni de' Medici, who took him to Milan and introduced him to Francis I, into whose good graces he soon ingratiated himself, 8 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books Shortly afterwards Aretino attempted to regain the favor of the Pope, but failing in this, he returned to Giovanni de' Medici. On the death of the latter, in December, 1526, he withdrew to Venice, where he afterwards continued to reside, employed in writing comedies, sonnets, licentious dialogues, and a few religious works. He died in 1557, according to some accounts, by falling from his chair in a fit of laughter caused by hearing an indecent story about his sisters. The reputation of Aretino in his own time rested chiefly on his satirical sonnets or bur- lesques ; but his comedies, five in number, are now considered the best of his works. His letters, of which a great number have been printed, are also commended for their style. 7 La I Sirena, | Marfisa, | & | Angelica | Poemetti | Di Partenio Etiro, | Con- secrati | All' Illvstr'?° Sig? | II Si- gner I Giorgio Foscarini, | In Venetia, MDCXXX. I Presso Marco Ginammi. | Con Licenza de' Sup. et Priuilegio. Duodecimo. These poems had already been printed in part, and several times. La Vita Di Catheri- | Na Vergine Composta | Per M. Pietro | Aretino. | .MDXXXXL Octavo. Portrait. Original and Early Editions of Italian Books The fourth edition, probably printed at Venice by Niccolini da Sabio. Aretino, who from time to time published religious works to drain the pious of their money, wrote this work at the request of the Marquis del Vasto. 9 La Vita Di Maria | Vergine Di Messer | PietroAre- | Tino. | Nuouamente corretta e ristampata. Octavo. Portrait. The second edition, printed at Venice by Niccolini da Sabio, about 1540 or 1541. ArioStO, LodovicO, the greatest poet of Italy after Dante and Petrarch, was born at Reggio (Emi- lia), September 8, 1474; he died at Ferrara, June 6, 1533- 10 Orlando Furioso | Di Ludouico Ariosto Nobile I Ferrarese: Nouamenteri- | stam- pato: & con molta | diligentia ricorret- | to : & quasi tut- | to reforma | to. j Ul.D.XXY I. —{Colophon) Finisse Orlando Furioso di Messer Ludouico | Ariosto da Ferrara : nouamente con gran | diligentia riformato & ricorretto: | Stampato nella Inclyta Citta di | Vinegia, Del Mese di Mar I zo. M.D.XXVL Quarto. ID [No. 10 ] Original and Early Editions of Italian Books Sixth edition, unknown until the year 182 1, when Melzi for the first time described it. Only two copies are known. Ariosto began to write his great poem about 1503, and, after having consulted the first men of his age, published it in 15 16. Up to the moment of his death he never ceased to correct and improve both the sub- ject and the style. He adopted the plots of Boiardo's Orlando Innamorato, "continued the story where he left it and brought it to a close ; so that, taken to- gether, both poems form one gigantic narrative of about 100,000 lines which has for its main subject the love and marriage of Ruggiero and Bradamante." 11 Orlando | Fvrioso | Di M. | Lodovico | Ariosto I Nuouamente | adoraato di Fi- gure di Rame | da Girolamo Porro. | Padouano. | . . . In Venetia| MDLXXX— nil. I Appresso Francesco de | Fran- ceschi Senese | e compagni. Quarto. 12 Orlando | Furioso | Di | Lodovico | Ariosto, I Tomo Primo. \Secondo, Terzo, Quarto] \ Birmingham, | Da' Torchj di G. Baskerville: | Per P. Molini. | M. DCC.LXXIII. Royal Quarto. Four volumes. Of this edition only one hundred copies were printed. It is valuable not only for the type and illustrations, but also, according to Morali, for the accurate read- 12 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books ing of the text. The poem is preceded by a life of Ariosto by Andrea Barotti. 13 Le Satire | Di M. Lodovico | Ariosto Novissi I Mamente Ri- | Stampate. | [Printer's mark] In Venetia. Octavo. Without printer's name or date ; but thought to have been printed by Bindoni and Pasini about 1535. Ariosto's Satires were not published during his life- time, but a few months after his death they were se- cretly printed ml mese di Giugno M.D. XXXIV. In 1535 the printers began to publish them openly. Baruffaldi in the Vita delP Ariosto mentions an edition of the year 1533, but no copy of it is known. "... The great exemplar is Ariosto, whose satires are not the least ornament of his poetic crown, yield- ing little in facetious urbanity to his model Horace. " — Garnett. 14 Le Satire | Di M. Lodovico | Ariosto Stampa | Te Novamente, | con diligenza reuiste, | etcorrette. — {Colophon) In Vene- tia per Alessandro de Vian. Octavo. Portrait, Printed about 1535 or 1536. Belcari, Feo, wasasonofFeodiCoppo(Jacopo) Belcari, and flourished at Florence about 1450. He died August 16, 1454. He wrote several Laudi and some Rappresentazioni sacre (Mysteries). «3 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books 15 La Vita Del | Beato Giovanni Colom | Bini Da Siena, Fonda | Tore Dell' Or- dine | De Poveri Giesva | Ti, Composta | Per Feo Bel- | Cari | E Da Lvi Dedica- ta Al Ma- | Gnifico Giovanni Di | Cosimo De' Medici. | Et Inoltre Vn' Opera Nel | La Qvale Si Contiene Par | Te Delia Vita D'Alcvni I Servi Di Giesv Cristo | E Qvali Fvrono Nel | La Compagnia Di | Detti Poveri | Giesvati. — ( Colophon) Impresso in Siena per Calisto, Francesco di Simione Bindi. | A Di. XXVIL d'Ottobre. M.D. XLL I Ad Instantia d [sic) Giouanni di Alisandro Libraio. Quarto. Third edition ; the first was printed at Florence by Nicholaus Florentiae (Nicolb di Lorenzo della Magna) about 1480-86. Bembo, Pietro, was bom at Venice, May 20, 1470. He studied Greek under Lascaris, and sub- sequently became a member of the Academy of Aldus Manutius. In 15 12 he went to Rome, where Leo X made him his private secretary and bestowed upon him numerous signs of his favor. After the death of Leo he retired to Padua, where he lived for a number of years, engaged in literary labors, and where he formed his valuable library. He was created a cardinal by Paul HI in 1539, and, going back to Rome, he renounced the study of classical literature and devoted himself to theology and his- 14 tnalff , ntvmdre ', et aperti (j^uegliocchi , che m quejh at mino fi chiudono , mirdre con efft tiuella mejfttiU beU lez!/^, di Oil fono amante fua doles merce gr^ bUon tsm fo ; et hora ferche io uecchio fia , ante tit mi uedi } elld non mhd ferdo mem , che m altra eta. , atro : ne mi n= fittttra j ferche io di des reft ftto eternamente'jet reo t^tteWdltro , che etemamen te ci condanna d dolere • Q^epe oafi ragonaa temi ddl fmto huomo ', fercio che tempo era , che io mi difdrnjji j ejjo mi licentio • llche pofaa che hebbe detb l.i4 erne J ^^^ ticnit V mcntcm Soctatew olim dtautt l« J^^^^m mimf luktr ittmf (olttwm c« iim€a(ttati«: cclelHum fvtf^c? fu||»ita cruritiiC arwTtdltnc: ci* rwof:/* filuf lufllc -'^c SctyaoTwrtn 4 t/i^r fcmArwrttw (^Mccf AVAr4tt« «t - pvi . tfiwrtunitahbur ' rdululunt rc(iPifccntcr no nu^ nidnT rnXxXore. .tnettC calculoT/eiectaf*^ c\ntvA\•ct■ m\cmA ' CLui^TcgT* ti^^ rwUtutn UtuLibtUum «; c!4lMtHr/4tttr ( ftrnttti- fluitun-tt- (fai^tw t-unr ' Teu t»AltJttm uf nuirxf oceutut uoc4])iih/4Vr fc^ ct xntdli^cnAc cf iAcmt, ntjpitt du motif notn i>ro fltuc dn VAhiAiC J^ mcnti: Struct CtuttUif uYj^xLicuL \qco (iinvitur/ ^de ien(%if \>Y(h9riA{if ^ [ No. 39 ] Original and Early Editions of Italian Books 40 loannis Boccacii de Certaldo : de monti- bus: sylvis: fontibus: lacubus: | flumini- bus : stagnis : seu paludibus : de nominibus maris: liber incipit feliciter. — [Colophon) lo. Boccatii uiri clarissimi de montibus: siluis: I fontibus: lacubus: stagnis seu paludibus : & de | diuersis nominibus ma- ris opus diligentissime | impressum finit. Venetiis Idus Ian. cccc.lxxiii (1473). Eolio. The first edition, frequently bound with De Genea- logia Deorum, printed by Vindelinus in 1472, and so, probably, by the same printer. 41 Opera Dell'Hvomo Dotto Et | Famoso Giovan. Boccaccio da Certal | do, dalla lingua latina nel thosco idioma per Meser Ni- I colo Liburnio nouamente trallatata. Doue per | ordine d'Alphabeto si tratta diffusamente delli | Monti : Selve : Bos- | chi : Fonti : La- | ghi : Fiumi : Sta- | gni : Paludi I Golfi : et | Man : . . . Quarto. There is no colophon to this, the first translation of the preceding work; but it was probably printed at Rome (by A. Blado?) about 1550. 42 Vrbano | Di M. Gioan Boccaccio | opera bellitissima [sic) in questi nouelli gior- | ni uenuta a luce, con somma dili- | genza 32 petrarcbam incfyCifm prfceptorem meumhotitCU facie SC faurea niteti confpicuum per idmet nadtum lento tamen incedentem grada:non (quide Ubore attritum: fed altioribus cogitattoibus pre(tum: &C celebri aec|)ComedabiIt grauitate dedudhim. Obftupui afpec!lu primo mirat9 quid circa tam infimum limen deducere^ bomo fublimis . ide memor Maronem folitum nonung grcgcm per imas Uallcs deduce re : &C aliqfi fml fuum: etia fupra aHra tranfierre: rubore fufiufus plurimo con(lici: ic fbrtunam ante alia damnaui meam:q) eo me in difcrimen deduxifTdC ui auditor ex minimis cum pr^ceptore ludlarerrpendenfq) multa eueHi gio animo circiiuolui:anirem.i.& incoeptum iter perficerem:ut Qarem leu potiusomnino redirem: &C prefTa bumo uedigia exturbarem. Oc/ currebant aut mibi plurima fuadentia redirum:& ate alia clarifTimi pr^ ceptotis mei fublimitas Ihli ornaturedimita mirabili: dc fententiarum ponderofitate plurima ftabilis.df infuper lepiditate uerbo^ deledtabilis nimium:quicucunqt extranea uideaturmateria.Pr^terea notitiarerum cuius plurimum indiget labor iHetquam adeo fibi familiarem noueram ut uidiCTe omnia:£C tenaci' feruafle memoria uideretur.Ec cu bis ruditas mea ftilus exoticus : bidoriarij penuria : ingentum bebes: 6C fluxa meo" ria ueniebantra quibus perfuafus cum iam elTem femiffexus in reditum & ecce prouerbium uetus uenit in mentem: quo aiunt contraria iuxta(e pofita magis elucefcut. Et ex co arbitratus fulgoris fui radios quatucu(^ de reciariCTimosopacitatisme^ tcnebras penetraturos poHeuideri itts entibus clariores: mutaui confilium : 6C ad eius reuerentiam non pngil: fed obfequiofus feruulus dC inneris Hrator infmem uiqi dedudlus fum: uolens iubentqi fi quod meritum mibi laboris bui? expedlandu e(l cau'^ tos eCTe ledlores : ut fi quid in bocopere operi uiciinclKti comperiantuc aduerfumzdamnetur illico : 6C fua fequatur : tanq uera danfq} lententia. Scripfi quidem quod in buccam uenit . Ipfe autem ft mores noui fuos) omnia muitipltcitrutmationedigefla:omiaponderofo librata iudicio icripGt:(cribetqt . Si quid uero congruum fuis conforme (criptis copiat": *diuin{ bouati do^tnf afccibatucTu;* lo.Boeeatii airi cfarifGmi de monttbas:ritufs: (bntibusrlacubussOagnis (eu paludibus: & de diaetfis nomtbus maris opus diligentidimc iprelTum 6nii; Venetiis Idtts lanx c c c «lxxiit [ No. 40 ] OPERA DELL'HVOMO DOTTO ET Famofo GIO VAN 'BOCCACCIO daCfrtai do , dalla lingua latina nel thofco idiomaper Mefer N I ^ COLO Lihurnio nouamente traltatata ♦ i)oue^er or dine d'hlfhahetofi tratta dijfufamente dellt MONTI t SELVfc t BOS/ CHI : FONTI : LAI GHI;FIVMI:STA GNI:PALVDI GOLFI i er MARIj .Delfuniuerfo MONDO , Con k nature ^ tutie Vat tre cofe memorahili in ^elli anticamente fatte t/ da VoetiyCoJmographijOuer Hiftorici difcritte.Et in fine per lofopradetto ♦ M * Wcoto Liburnio pojie fono le Vrouinciedt tuttoH Modo ,cioe VASIA EV < ROPA , tf APHRICA . Etinchemodo molte delle dette Jitrono chiamate da gti antichi ^ in che guifa hor nominate fono dalli Moderrd ♦ [ No. 41 ] Original and Early Editions of Italian Books uista, corretta et nuo- | uamente stampata. I M D XXX. [Portrait,]— {Colophon) Stam- pato in Vinegia per Nicolo | d'Aristotile detto Zoppino. | MDXXX. Octavo. This work, a tale about an accident which happened to the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, is erroneously attributed to Boccaccio. According to Tommaso Buonaventuri {Lettera published by the Abbate Luigi Fiaschi), it was the work of a writer who tried to imitate him. In a manuscript once belonging to Poggiali it is ascribed to Giovanni Buonsignori of Citt^ di Castello. Boiardo, Matteo Maria, was bom at Scan- diano, one of the seigniorial estates of his family, near Reggio di Modena, about 1434. At an early age he entered the University of Ferrara, where he acquired a good knowledge of Greek and Latin, and even of the Oriental languages. At the court of Ferrara he enjoyed the favor of Duke Borso d'Este and his successor Ercole, and was entrusted with several honorable employments. He was named governor of Reggio in 1478. Three years afterwards he was elected captain of Modena, and reappointed governor of the town and citadel of Reggio, where he died in December, 1494. 43 Liprimi tre libri del [ Conte Orlando | ina- morato I Composto per el Conte Matteo I maria Boiardo Conte | di Scandiano Poe I tapreclaris- j simo. — [Colophon)lva.^xtsso 35 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books nella inclita Citta di Venetia per Augu- stino di Bendoni nel Anno del signore. MDxxxviij. Octavo. Colophon of this copy missing; supplied from Brunet and Melzi. Boiardo's poem of sixty-nine cantos was left incom- plete at the author's death. He published the first two books in i486 ( Venice, by Piero de Fiasi) ; the third was published after his death ( Venice, by Simone Bevilacqua, I4g5). AH three books were printed together at Scandiano the year after his death, under the superintendence of his son, Count Camillo {Scan- diano, by Pellegrino de Pasquali, I4()3) ; but of this edition no copy is known. The work continued to be reprinted during the first half of the XVIth cen- tury, but it was then superseded by the Furioso. The Orlando Innamorato is one of the most impor- tant poems in Italian literature ; it was the first ex- ample of the romantic epic, and served as a model for the Orlando Furioso. "Without the Innamorato the Furioso is meaningless." "The value of the Orlando Innamorato for the student of Italian development is principally this, that it is the most purely chivalrous poem of the Renaissance. " — Symonds. 44 Tutti li libri d' Orlando inamorato del conte de Scandiano Mattheo Maria Bojardo, al vero senso reduti et ultimamente stampai {sic) MDXLIII. — {Colophon) InVineggia per Alouise de Tortis. Nelli anni della | 36 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books Salutifera Incarnatione del nostro Signore | lesu Christo. M.D.XXXXIII. | del mese di Febraro. | Orlan. Inna. Title-page of this copy missing. Title supplied from Brunei. 45 II Qvarto [Quinto, and Sesto'\ Libro Dello | Innamoramento Di Orlando | nel quale si conteneno molte, e Diverse | battaglie, come in quel leggendo | si potra intendere. Composto I per Nicolo Delli Agostini | nuouamente ristampa | pato (sic), e congran cura I corretto. — [Colophon) In Vineggia per Aloise de Tortis. Nelli anni della | Salutifera Incarnatione del nostro Signore | lesu Christo. M.D.XXXXIII. | Del mese di Febraro. Octavo. There are only two other known copies of this edi- tion, one in the Royal Library at Stuttgart, the other was offered in the Libri sale in 1847. All editions of Orlando Innamorato printed in the first half of the XVIth century are rare, especially when well preserved. They were already scarce in the second half of the XVIth century, as is proved by a letter of G. Vine. Pinello to Aldus Manutius, ask- ing the printer to lend him an edition of Boiardo "in quel modo che fu lasciata da lui senza riforma," be- cause he was unable to find a copy. ' ' No edition of the original as Boiardo wrote it 37 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books was published from 1544 to 1830, when Antonio Panizzi . . . redeemed it from oblivion and restored it to the place it has ever since maintained as a star of at least the second magnitude in the constellation of Italian epic poetry. " — Gamett. The three books, written by Nicolo degli Agostino, in continuation of Orlando Innamorato, were issued separately, and at different times. The first book was printed with Boiardo's three books at Venice by Giorgio de Rusconi in 1506; the second book was written nine years after the first, and printed sepa- rately in 1 5 14 (Venice, by Giorgio di Rusconi). We find the third book published for the first time in the edition of Orlando Innamorato printed at Venice by F. Bindoni and M. Pusini, 1525. 46 Sonetti e Canzone Del | Poeta Carissimo {sic) Ma I theo Maria Boiardo | Conte di Scandiano ^Printer's mark\ — ( Colophon) Impressum Venetiis per loannem Bap- tistam Sessa. | Anno Domini. M.ccccc.i.a. di.xxvi. Marzo [/h'«/l M. POGGIO, dsUdoriginedeU4 gr^n^uma tNnORE£IZAnDXLVIt# [ No. 48 ] Original and Early Editions of Italian Books The first edition of this historical novel ; it was reprinted at Florence in 1834 with the title Novella tVincerto autore del sec. XV, and at Lucca in 1850 with the title Novella della Puhella di Francia. A unique copy. Gamba {Serie dei tesii di lingua) mentions only the second edition of 1834, asserting that it is the first. It is mentioned in Passano, who says that it is very rare. Bruno, Giordano, the most genial and inter- esting of the Italian philosophers of the Renaissance, was bom at Nola about the year 1548. In his fifteenth year he entered the order of the Dominicans at Naples, but he soon found the restraints intolera- ble, and became an outcast from his Church. He was accused of impiety, and thereafter led a life of flight and exile. After seven years of imprisonment in Rome he was burned at the stake, February 7, 1600. 49 Candelaio | Comedia Del Brv ( No No- lano Achademi- | Co di nulla Achade- mia; detto il fa- | stidito. | In Tristitia Hila- I ris: in Hilaritate tristis. | In Pa- riggi, I Appresso Guglelmo {sic) GiuHano. Al I segno de I'Amicitia. | M.D.LXXXII. Duodecimo. The first edition. Moli^re took from this satire on pedantry and avarice the idea for the first interlude of his Malade Imaginaite. 41 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books Brusantino, VincenzO, was bom at Ferrara, and died in that city about the year 1570. He also translated in ottava rima the Decameron {Cento Nov e lie di Vincenzo Brusantini in ottava rima; e tutte hanno V Allegoria col Proverbio a proposito delta Novella. Venice, by Marcolini, i^S4)- 50 Angelica | Inamorata, | Di M. Vincentio Brvsantino Ferrarese. | . . . \Printer's mark] In Vinegia | Per Francesco Mar- colini, M D LIII. I Con Privilegio. Quarto. The second edition. This work forms a sequel to Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. Burchiello, DomenicO, lived in Florence, where he was probably bom. The year of his birth is unknown; he died at Rome in 1448. 51 Rime | Del Bvrchiello | Fiorentino | Co- mentate dal Doni. | . . . {Printer's mark] In Vicenza, Per gli Heredi di Perin Li- braro. 1597 | Con licentia de' Superiori. Octavo. Doni's commentary is often so obscure as to be more in need of elucidation than the Sonnets. Caro, Annibale, was bom at Civita Nuova in 1507. His most important work was the translation of the Aeneid (Venice, 1581). He is also the author 42 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books of Rime, Canzoni, and sonnets, a comedy entitled Gli Straccioni, and two clever /V«x d^ esprit, one in praise of figs (Za Ficheide), and another in eulogy of the big nose of Ancona Leoni, president of the Accademia della Vertic. His prose works consist of translations from Aristotle, Cyprian, and Gregory Nazianzen; and of these letters, written in his own name and in those of the Cardinals Farnese, which are both remarkable for their elegance. Caro's poetry is distinguished by very considerable ability, and par- ticularly by the freedom and grace of its versification. He died at Rome, November 21, 1566. 52 De Le Lettere | Familiari | Del Commen- datore | Annibal Caro | Volvme Primo {and Secondo]. | Col Priuilegio di N. S. PP. Pio V. & deir lUustriss. | Signoria di Venetia. | [Printer's mark] In Venetia, | Appresso Aldo Manutio. | M.D.LXXIV. (-MDLXXV). Quarto. Two volumes. The first volume was printed by Aldus in 1572; the second is here printed for the first time. The first volume was published, posthumously, by Giambat- tista Caro, a nephew of the author, and the second by Lepido Caro, another nephew. This edition is the best, and Volpi used it for his edition of 1725. Giovanni Delia Casa was bom at Mugeiio, June 28, 1503. He studied at Bologna, Florence, and Rome, and by his learning attracted the attention of Alexander Farnese, who, as Pope Paul HI, made 43 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books him nuncio to Florence, where he received the honor of being elected a member of the Accademia Fioren- tina. He was appointed archbishop of Benevento, and it was believed that it was only his licentious poem, Capitoli del Fomo, which prevented him from being raised to a still higher dignity. He died at Rome, November 14, 1556. Casa is chiefly re- markable as the leader of a reaction in lyric poetry against the universal imitation of Petrarch, and as the originator of a style which, if less soft and ele- gant, is more majestic than that which it replaced. His prose writings gained great reputation in their own day and long afterwards, but are disfigured by frequent puerility and circumlocution. His principal work is the famous // Galateo, a treatise on man- ners, which has been translated into Latin and several other languages. 53 Le Terze Rime De | Messer Giovanni Dal I La Casa Di Messer | Bino Et D' Altri | \Printer's mark] Per Cvrtio Navo, E Fra | Telli. M D XXXVIII [ Venice]. Octavo. Second edition; the first was printed at Venice by the same printer in 1528. We find these poems registered in the early Roman Indices librorutn pro- hibitorum. Castiglione, Baldassare, was bom at Ca- satico, December 6, 1478. He was educated at Milan under the famous humanist Giorgio Merula and under Demetrio Calcondila. In 1496 he entered the service of Lodovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, returning to 44 IL LIBRO DEL CORTEGIANO' DEL CONTE BALDESAR CASTIGLIONE* Haffi nel priuiIegfo,& nella gratia ottenuta dalla Illuftriflima Signoria che in quefta.ne in niun alcra Cittadel fuo dominio (i pofTa fmprfmere, ne aitroue impreffo ticndere queflo libro del Cortegiano per^^;?) Loinfelice Guerino dito Meschino fiolo de dio Marte | de sangue Reale de Franzia Magnifico & | ualleroso (sic) Capitanio qui felicemente | lo libro suo fornito e in Padua | adi. xxi. de Aurile |.M.cccc.Lxxiii. | Bartholomeus de Valdezochio ciuis Patauus | Martinus de septem arboribus Prutenus. . F.F. Folio. The first edition ; only three or four copies are known. Gamba and other bibliographers ascribe this prose romance of chivalry to Andrea Fiorentino. Latin i, BrunettO, was bom at Florence in 1230, and died there in 1294. He was the teacher of Guido Cavalcanti, and of Dante, who speaks of him, in the fifteenth canto of the Inferno, in the following affectionate terms : " La buona e cara immagine patema Di voi, quando nel mondo ad ora ad ora M'insegnavate come I'uom s'eterna. " 67 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books His chief work was his encyclopaedia, one of the earliest attempts in the vulgar tongue, which strove to embrace the entire field of what was then known, and from which "Dante, in common with all his contemporaries, derived no small portion of his knowledge." 78 Retorica | Di Ser Brvnetto Latini | in vol- gar I fiorentino. — [Colophon) Stampata in Roma in Campo di Fiore per M. Valerio Dorico, I et Luigi Fratelli Brefciani, nell' Anno. I M.D.XLVL [Printer's mark] Quarto. The first edition. This book contains the translation of a part of the first book of De Inventione, accompanied by a long commentary, which gives it the appearance of having been written by the commentator rather than by Cicero. Lodovici, Francesco dei, a writer of Venice, of whose life nothing is known. 79 Triomphi Di Carlo Di Messer | Francesco D'l Lodovici Vinitiano. | [JVoodcut]. — {Colophon) II fine della seconda parte, et di tutto esso libro, intitolato I Triomphi Di I Carlo, di Messer Francesco d'i Lo- douici Vinitiano, Stampato in Vinegia per I Mapheo Pasini et Francesco Bin- doni compagni al segno dell' angiolo Ra- 68 HISTORIE DI NICOLO MACHIAVELLI CITTADINO ET SECRETARIO FIORENTINO. AL SANTISSIMO ET BEATISSIMO PADRE SIGNORE NOSTRO CLEMENTE VI L Pont. Mass. H. D. L. [ No. 80 ] Original and Early Editions of Italian Books phaello ap- | presso san Mois^ I'anno della nostra salute MDXXXV. del mese di Set- I tembre. . . . Quarto. The first edition. Lodovici wrote another romance of chivalry entitled Antheo Gigante (Venice, Bindoni et Pasini, 1523), which tells of Charlemagne's adventures with the giant Ant^o. Machiavelli, Niccolb, was bom at Florence, May 3, 1469; he died June 22, 1527. \o [Complete Works.] {Geneva {?), by Pierre Aubert{?)) M.D.L. Quarto. The first edition, called dalla Testina, because it bears on the title-page a small head of Machiavelli, printed for the first time in the Discorsi, at Venice, by Comino da Trino, 1540. \\ Discorsi Di Nicol6 Machia- | Velli, Fi- rentino, Sopra | La Prima Deca Di | Tito Livio, I Nuouamente corretti, et con som- ma I diligenza ristampati. | \Aldus'' device\ U.'D. XL.— {Colophon) In Vinegia, Nell' Anno M.D. | XL. In Casa De' Figlivo- | Li Di Aldo. Octavo. 70 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books The first edition printed by Aldus. It is a reprint of a little known edition, made at Venice, by Giov. Antonio di Nicolini e Fratelli da Sabbio, in 1532. "Cast in the form of comments on the history of Livy, the Discorsi are really an inquiry into the genesis and maintenances of states. ..." Malespini, Ricordano, of the noble family of Malespini, was the earliest writer of Florentine history. He died in 1 281. B2 Historia | Antica Di | Ricordano Male- spini I Gentir huomo Fiorentino | Dall' edificazione di Fiorenza per insino | all' anno M.CCLXXXI. | Con I'aggiunta di | Giachetto Svo Nipote | Dal detto anno per insino al | 1286. | Nvovamente Posta in Lvce. | Con Licenza de Superiori. | [Printer's mark] In Fiorenza | Nella stam- peria de i Giunti | M.D.LXVIII. | Con Priuilegio. Quarto. The first edition. The nephew, who continued the chronicle from Ricordano's death to the year 1286, was Giachetto di Francesco Malespini. Giovanni Villani copied freely from Malespini' s work without making recog- nition of his indebtedness. Medici, Lorenzo de', called // Magnifico, was born about 1449, and died April 8, 1492. 71 POESIE VO LGARI, NVOVAMENTE STAMPATE, DI LORENZO DE* MEDICI, chc fu padre di Papa Leone : Col commento dtl medepmo fSfrd dlcuni defnoifoncttu Con frmlegio del ?onttfice J ^delld signoriddi \megid J fer dnni X X . IN VINEGIA, M. D. LIIII* f No. 83 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books 83 Poesie Volgari, | Nvovamente Stampate, Di Lorenzo De' Medici, | che fu padre di Papa Leone : | Col commento del mede- simo sopra alcuni de' suoi sonetti. — [Colo- phon) In Vinegia, | In Casa De' Figlivoli | Di Aldo, M.D.LIIII. Octavo. The first edition. Novelle Antiche, Cento. 84 Libro Di | Novelle, Et Di Bel | Parlar Gentile. | Nel quale si contengono Cento Nouelle altrauolta | mandate fuori da Messer Carlo | Gualteruzzi da Fano. | Di Nuouo Ricorrette. | Con aggiunta di quattro altre nel fine. | Et con vna dichia- ratione d'alcune delle voci piu antiche. | Con Licenza, Et Privilegio. | [IHnter's mark] In Fiorenza. | Nella Stamperia de i Giunti. | M D LXXII. Quarto. The first edition was printed at Bologna by Benedetti, 1525, and was published by Gualteruzzi with Bembo's assistance. This is one of the earliest books written in the Italian language. According to Federigo Ubal- dini and Magliabecchi, the author of some of the tales was Francesco da Barberino. These cento novelle are considered testi di lingua, 73 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books and were the foundation of some of the most beauti- ful tales of succeeding writers, including Chaucer and other early English poets. Palmieri, MatteO, was bom at Florence about 1405. He was appointed to several public offices, among them the supreme office of Gonfaloniere di Giustizia. He died in 1475. His works are written chiefly in prose, and comprise a general chronicle from the creation of the world to his time, a life of Niccol6 Acciaioli, the book De captivitate Pisarum, the annals of the Florentines (1432-74), and a history of the translation of the body of St. Barbara. He wrote also a poem in terza rima, in imitation of Dante, entitled Citta di Vita, which was praised by Marsilio Ficino. 85 Libro Delia Vita Ci- | Vile Composta Da | Mattheo Palmieri | Cittadino Fiorentino. | \IVinter's mark\ — {^Colophon) In Firenze per li heredi di Philippe | di Giunta ne I'anno del Signore | M.D.XXIX. alii 5. di I Settembre. Octavo. The first edition. Pescatore, Giovanni Battista, wasbornat Ravenna, and died in 1558. He wrote other works, which are : Vendetta di Ruggiero (Venice, Comin da Trino, I55^)i ^^'i ^ comedy, Nina (Venice, Comin 74 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books da Trino, 1558). The Morte di Ruggiero and the Vendetta di Ruggiero are a continuation of Orlando Furioso. 86 La Morte Di Rvg- | Giero Continvata Alia Ma- | teria de I'Ariosto, con ogni riuscimento di | tutte I'imprese generose da lui pro- | poste, e non fornite. | Ag- giontovi Molti Bellis- | simi successi, che a I'alto apparecchio di quel | diuino Poeta seguir debbono. | Con Le AUegorie Ad Ogni I canto, che possono leuare I'intel- letto a I comprendere gli effetti de la | virtu, e del vitio. | Per Giovambattista | pescatore da Rauennanoua- | mentecom- posta. I Con Privilegio. | [Printer's mark] In Venetia | Per Pauolo Gherardo. | M D XL.YIU.— {ColoJ>/ion) In Vinetia per Comin da Trino | di Monferrato L'anno. | M.D.XLVIII. Quarto. Petrarca, Francesco, was bom at Arezzo, July 20, 1304, and died at Arqua, July 18, 1374. He was "eminent in the history of literature both as one of the four classical Italian poets, and also as the first true reviver of learning in mediaeval Europe." Symonds. 87 [Sonetti, Canzoni e Trionfi.] Tabula Francisci petrarce. — {At the end) Finis. Quarto. 75 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books Manuscript on vellum, written in Italy during the XVth century. 88 [Sonetti, Canzoni e Trionfi.] {Colophon) Francisci petrarcae laureati poetae | nec- non secretarii apostolici | benemeriti. Rerum | uulgarium fragmen- | ta ex ori- ginali | libro extracta | In urbe pa | tauina li | ber abso | lutus est | foe- lici I ten | Bar. de Valde. patauus. F.F. | Martinus de septem arboribus Prutenus. | M.CCCC.LXXII. I Die .VI. No | ven | birs. {Sic) Folio. The third edition. One of the few copies which have the first page in capital letters. The peculiar interest of this edition is that it was printed from Petrarch's autograph manuscript, and that the account of Laura, which faces the first page of the Sonnets, was here published for the first time. 89 [Trionfi.] [N] EL TENPO I CHE RIN | VOVA. I I MIEI. SO I SPIRI. I perladolceme- moria di quel giomo | . . . Octavo. A manuscript, on vellum, of the second half of the XVth century. The first page is embellished with an illuminated capital letter and border. 76 F elice ftfJo^cM hel uilo ferrd : che foi chdUra.ri^efo ilfuo bel utloi Sefu heato^chi U ttide in terrd\ K or che fia dwt(jue a rituderU in cielo ? tmpreljo in ^ine^a mile atfe Jtf>.Uo Romano, ml anno -MDl -del mefe di LugUo, et tolto con fommifjima diliffn'^d dallo fcritto di ntano me defitna del VoetdJjdUHto da M'Pieronemho Con Id Ofncefjtom delldlllujirifftma, ft gnorid nofha , che per 'X' dnni mfftno f>o(Jd /iampdre il Petrarchd fotto le pern, che in lei ft conten ^nC' [ No. 91 ] Original and Early Editions of Italian Books 90 DOMINI FRAN | CISCI PE- TRARCE I POETAE CLARISSI | MI TRIVMFORVM | LIBER INCIPIT | ET PRIMO DE AMORE. ] [A minia- ture representing Petrarch, seated in a field, reading a book.\ [N]E1 tempo che rinoua i mei suspiri | . . . Quarto. A manuscript, on vellum, of the second half of the XV th century. 91 Le Cose Volgari | Di Messer | Francesco Petrarca. — {Colophon) Impresso in Vinegia nelle case d' Aldo Romano, | nel anno. MDI. del mese di Luglio, et tolto con | sommissima diligenza dallo scritto di mano me I desima del Poeta, hauuto da M. Piero Bembo | Con la concessione della Illustrissima Si | gnoria nostra, che per. x. anni | nessuno possa stampare il | Pe- trarcha sotto le | pene, che in lei | si con- ten I gono. Octavo. This is the famous edition printed from the auto- graph manuscript of the author, which Bembo gave to Aldus. It was the first Italian book from the Aldine press, and shows the results of experiments made by Aldus to reduce the size of printing types. "Legend says that the new letters were copied 78 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books ■ exactly from the handwriting of Petrarch, inclining like all cursive writing ; the name Italic was given to this character, which was also called Aldine, from its inventor." 92 Librorum Francisci Petrarchae Basileae | Impressorum Annotatio. | . . . — ( Colophon) Explicit Liber Augustalis : Beneuenuti de Rambaldis cum pluribus alijs opusculis | Francisci Petrarchae. Impressis Basileae per Magistrum Johannem de Amerbach : Anno I salutiferi uirginalis partus : Nona- gesimosexto supra miilesimum quaterque centesimum. — {Following) Principalium sententiarum ex libris Francisci | Pe- trarchae collectarum summaria Annotatio. Folio. 93 [De remediis utriusque fortunae] [c]Vm res fortunasque hominum cogito incertos et subitos | rerum motus . . . — {At the end) Explicit liber iste de remedys | vtri- usque fortune domini francisci | petrarche laureati poete, etc. Folio. The first edition, probably printed at Strasburg in 1472-73, by H. Eggesteyn. 79 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books PicCOlomini, AleSSandrO, was born at Siena in 1508. He was professor of ethics in the acad- emy of Infiammati at Padua, and afterwards was appointed archbishop of Patras. He died in 1578- Piccolomini wrote several works, among which are Rime, comedies, a dialogue entitled Raffaella, Dia- logo delta bella creanza delle donne, the Sfera del tnondo, a paraphrase on the Mechanics of Aristotle, a translation of the sixth book of the ^neid and one of Ovid's Metamorphoses. 94 De La Institvtione | Di Tvtta La Vita De L'Homo | Nato Nobile | E In Citt^ Libera. | Libri X. In Lingva To- scana. | . . . Composti dal S. | Alessandro Piccolomini • . . | Con Pri- [Jointer's mark] vilegio. | Venetijs apud Hierony- mum Scotum. | M D XLII. Quarto. The first edition. Piccolomini in this work cites Plato and Aristotle on the education of gentlemen born in a free city. Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni, was born at Mirandola in 1463 ; he died at Florence in 1494. His works were all published by his nephew, Giov. Francesco Pico. 95 loannis Pici Mirandulae omnia opera, | . . . ^Printer's mark] — {Colophon) Dispu- tationes loannis Pici Nirandulae (sic) 80 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books literarum | principis aduersus astrologiam diuinatri- | cem quibus penitus subneruata coiTU- I it Parisijs loannis parui Impen- | sa fideliter & Impresse & elima | te. Anno salutis Millesimo | quingentesimo decimo | septimo die nona | Mensis lunij. JFolio. Poliziano, Angelo Ambrogini, known in literary annals as Angelo Poliziano or Politianus from his birthplace, was born at Montepulciano in 1454. His genius was early manifested, and Lorenzo de' Medici took him into his house, made him the tutor of his children, and gave him a distinguished post in the University of Florence. He died in 1494. 96 Stanze Di | Messer Angelo Politiano | Co- minciate per la gio | stra del Magnifico | Giuliano di Pie- ( ro de Medici. — {Colo- phon) Impresso in Bologna per Hieronymo di Be I nedetti. Nellanno del Signore. M.D.XX. Octavo. These famous Stanze which were written by Poli- ziano at the age of fourteen, are considered amongst the most graceful Italy has produced. The Orfeo, recited at Mantua probably in 1472, is called the earliest example of Italian tragedy. Pulci, Bernardo, a brother of Luigi Pulci, flourished about the end of the XVth century. 81 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books 97 [Passione, Resurrezione, Vendetta and Giudizio di Cristo.] Eolio. A manuscript, on paper, of the XVth century. The Passione and Resurrezione were printed at Florence about the end of the XVth century. The Vendetta and Giudizio were written by Monna An- tonia, the wife of Bernardo, and were printed for the first time at Florence in 1491. Pulci, Luigi, the intimate friend and confidential agent of Lorenzo de' Medici, was bom at Florence, December 3, 1432, and died in 1487. 98 Morgan te | Maggiore Di | Lvigi Pvlci Fi- rentino, j • • • | InVenetia | PerCominde Trinodil Monf errato, I'anno | M.D.XLVI. Quarto. The date 1545 appears at the end of the book, which would make it seem probable that the work was pub- lished at that time, and, some copies remaining unsold, a new title-page added the next year. The Morgante Maggiore has been called the "first really great modern example of burlesque poetry." There are traces of its influence in almost every literature. Redi, Francesco, physician and naturalist, was born at Arezzo in 1626, and died at Pisa in 1698. 82 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books 99 Bacco | In | Toscana. | Ditirambo | Di | Francesco Redi | Accademico Delia Crvsca | Con Le | Annotazioni. | In Firenze, MDCLXXXV. | Per Piero Ma- tini air Insegna del Lion d'Oro. | Con licenza de' Superior!. Quarto. The first edition. Rime di diversi antichi Autori. I GO Rime Di Diversi | Antichi Avtori | Tos- cani In Die | Ci Libri Rac | Colte. | Di Dante Alaghieri Lib. IIII | Di M. Cino da Pistoia Libro I | Di Guido Caualcanti Libro I I Di Dante da Maiano Libro I | Di Fra Guittone d'Arezzo Lib. I | Di diuerse Canzoni e Sonetti senza | nome d'autore Libro I. — {Colophon) Stampata in Vinegia per lo. Antonio e Fratelli da Sabio. Nell' anno del Signore MDXXX- IL Octavo. Colophon of this copy missing ; supplied from B. Gamba, Serie dei Testi di Lingua 1839, No. 800. This collection contains, among others, the works of Cino da Pistoia, "a jurist of encyclopasdic erudition, as well as a sweet and fluent singer. ... In [him] the artistic sense of the Italians awoke " ; of Guido 83 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books Cavalcanti, "the leader of the group which culmi- nates in Dante " ; of Dante da Maiano and Fra Guit- tone of Arezzo, who "attempted more than he was able to fulfil. But his attempt, when judged by the conditions of his epoch, deserves to rank among achievements." Rosa, Salvatore, a renowned painter of the Neapolitan school, was born in Arenella in 1615; he died March 15, 1673. 1 01 Satire | Di | Salvator Rosa | Dedicate | A Settano. | Con Le Note ] D'Anton Maria Salvini | Ora Per La Prima Vol- ta I Date Alia Luce. | In Bema | MDCCLXIX. Octavo. The first edition with Salvini's notes. It is unknown to bibliographers. Sannazaro, JacopO, was bom at Naples in 1458. He studied under Pontano, when, according to the fashion of the time, he assumed the name of Actius Syncerus. He was patronized by Frederick in, King of Naples ; and when his patron was com- pelled to take refuge in France he accompanied him, and did not return to Italy till after Frederick's death (1504). Sannazaro spent the later years of his life at Naples, where he died April 27, 1530. 84 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books 1 02 Arcadia Del Sannazaro. — {Colophon) Im- presso in Florentia per Philippo di Giunta I nel. M.D.XIII. di Marzo. Leo | ne de- cimo Pontefice. Octavo. The Arcadia, in which, in alternate prose and verse, the scenes and occupations of pastoral life are de- scribed, was the work which gave Sannazaro his greatest fame ; it was so esteemed that in the XVIth century over sixty editions of it were published. Sarpi, Paolo, in the order of the Servi di Maria, Fra Paolo, was born at Venice, August 14, 1552, and died there, January 15, 1623. His most celebrated work is the Storia del Concilio di Trento, published for the first time at London, in 16 19, under the name of Pietro Soave Polano. In his writings, Fra Paolo attacked the infallibility of the Pope and condemned his usurpations of temporal power. 103 Historia | della Sacra | Inqvisitione. | Composta Gia Dal R.P. | Paolo Ser- , vita : . . . I Jn Serravalle, | Appresso Fa- bio Albicocco. I M.DC.XXXVIII. Quarto. The first edition. A dispute between the Venetian government and the Inquisition led Sarpi to write this book. "As an advocate, Sarpi is far superior to . . . [Pallavicino] ; as an historian, Ranke places him immediately after Machiavelli. As a man, he ap- 85 PREDICHE NVOVA MENTE VENVTE IN LVCE. DEL R.E uerendo Padre Fra Girolamo Sauonarola da Fcrrara, dcll'ordinc dc Frati predicatori , fbpra il Saltno Q. V A M BO N VS Ifrael Deus, Predicate in Eirenze, in fanta Maria del Fiore in uno Adueto, neKM» C C C C X C 1 1 1, dal mc.# demo poi in latina I^ua raccoItetEtda Fra Girolamo Giannotti da Pifloia in lingua uolgare tradotte: Ec da mold eccellencifiimi buomini diligentemente riui(le 0^ emendatetdC in lin gua Tofcha imprefle* .XXXYl.— {Colophon) Venetiis, in Aedibvs Haere | Dvm Aldi, Et Andreae | Asvlani Soceri; | M.D. XXXVI. Quarto. By this work, which gave to him his highest reputa- tion, Valla subjected the forms of Latin grammar and the rules of Latin rhetoric to critical investiga- tion. He placed the practice of composition upon a foundation of analysis and inductive reasoning. Varchi, Benedetto, was born at Florence in 1502 and died there in 1565. 119 L'Hercolano | Dialogo Di Messer | Bene- detto Varchi, | nel qual si ragiona gene- ralmente delle lingue, et in | particolare della Toscana, e della | Fiorentina | . • • [IHnter's mark] In Fiorenza, | Nella stamperia di Filippo Giunti, | e Fratelli, MDLXX. Quarto. The first edition. 97 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books 1 20 Storia I Fiorentina | Di Messer | Bene- detto Varchi. | ... In Colonia {Augusta) MDCCXXI I Appresso Pietro Martello. Eolio. First edition, edited by Francesco Settimanni of Florence. This work includes the period of Florentine his- tory between the years 1527 and 1538. 121 Lezzioni Di | Benedetto | Varchi | Ac- cademico Fiorentino, | . . . | \Printer's mark] In Fiorenza, | Per Filippo Givnti, I MDXC. I Con Licenza de' Superiori, et Priuilegio. Quarto. The first complete edition. Vasari, Giorgio, a celebrated painter and archi- tect, was born at Arezzo, July 30, 1 5 1 1 ; he died at Florence, June 27, 1574. 2 Delle Vite | De' piii Eccellenti | Pittori, Scvltori, I Et Architetti. | Di Giorgio Vasari | Pittore, & Architetto, Aretino | In Bologna, MDCXLVIII (-MDCLX- III). I Per gli Eredi di Euangelista Dozza. Con licenza de' Superiori. Quarto. Three volumes. 98 Original and Early Editions of Italian Books Villani, Giovanni, was bom at Florence, where he died of the plague in 1348. "... Taken as a whole, he may be regarded as the greatest chronicler who has written in Italian." — Balzani. 123 Croniche Di Messer | Giovanni Villani Cittadino Fioren | tino. . . . | [ Woodcut\ Hassi nel priuilegio, & nella gratia ottenuta dalla lUustrissima Signoria . . . — {Colo- phon) Finiscono le Croniche di messer Giouan Villani Cittadino Fiorenti- | no. Stampate in Vinetia per Bartholomeo Zanetti Casterza- | gense. Nel anno della incarnatione del Signore. | M.D. XXXVII. del mese d'Agosto. Folio. The first edition, published by Giacomo Fasolo. It contains only the first ten books ; the eleventh and twelfth were printed for the first time at Florence by L. Torrentino in 1554. The work was continued by Giovanni's brother, Matteo, and his nephew, Filippo, to 1368. 99 <^M pii I "■p ^liiil