La prima (seconda) parte de Ragionamenti di M. Pietro Aretino, cognominato il flagello de prencipi, il veritiero, e'l divino, divisa in tre giornate, la contenenza de le quali si porra ne la facciata seguente.

RARE SECOND WOLFE EDITION OF ARETINO'S LICENTIOUS DIALOGUES.

Woodcut initials and diagram, typographic ornaments. Italic type.

8vo (160 x 100mm). [6]ff, 228pp; [5]ff (first leaf blank), 401, [5]pp., (blank); 142pp, [1]f (blank).  Eighteenth-century calf, simple blind fillet on cover, spine gilt with five raised bands, title lettered in second compartment, red edges (joints cracked, headcap chipped and extremities worn).    

Bengodi, Barbagrigia, 1584 [London, John Windet for John Wolfe],

Rare second edition of Pietro Aretino’s famously licentious Ragionamenti to have been published by Wolfe, after his first in 1584 (Woodfield). With Wolfe’s typical misdirection, the printing location ‘Bengodi’ is the name of a land of plenty borrowed from the Decameron, and Wolfe’s pseudonym, ‘Melagrano’, or pomegranate, means ‘folly’.

Written 1534-36, the Ragionamenti consists of two dialogues between prostitutes, each part organised into three days, in which the protagonist instructs her daughter in the ways of the courtesan and recommends it as a career preferable to other alternatives for women (marriage, and the convent). The final work here is Annibale Caro’s lascivious poem on the subject of figs.

Sparse annotation in brown ink.

Hinges weak. An attractive copy.

CNCE 2484. BMSTC (Italian), 518. Brunet I, 411. Parenti, 35. Woodfield, 46, 47. OCLC: (With this pagination and/or ref.: US: Huntington, UCLA, Harry Ransom, Notre Dame.)

Stock Code: 228018