Prose di M. Agnolo Firenzuola Fiorentino.

Printers device on title page, historiated woodcut initials throughout, with woodcut diagrams. 

8vo (157 x 107mm). 430 (i.e.410), [4]pp. 19th-century red morocco, panelled with simple blind fillets, with gilt arabesque centrepiece and simple fleuron cornerpieces; spine with five raised bands, with gilt ornaments in four compartments and title and author lettered in gilt in second and fifth; inside gilt dentelle border, gilt edges, marbled endpapers (discoloration of spine, extremities slightly worn).

Florence, appresso Lorenzo Torrentino, 

Attractive second edition of the prose works of Agnolo Firenzuola (1493-1543), after the first Giunta edition of 1548, and ‘Esteemed by lovers of the Italian language’ as the best version of the writer’s works along with Giunta’s (Gamba). The Discorsi degli Animali is a translation of an Indian collection of almost thirty animal fables, and the Ragionamenti Amorosi a collection of shorter tales. The Discacciamento delle lettere marks Firenzuola’s engagement with the questione della lingua debates that raged in this period (esp. the proposals of Trissino: see item 59). Finally, the Dialogo della Bellezza delle Donne is a platonic meditation on female beauty, illustrating, with the aid of diagrams, ideal proportions and figure.

Provenance: Label of bookseller Leo Samuel Olschki (1861-1940) on front paste-down, bearing the device of fifteenth-century Venetian printer Lazzaro Soardi; acquisition notes on front free endpaper in nineteenth-century hand. Ownership inscription on flyleaf of Alberto Bacchi della Lega (1848-1924), Italian bibliophile, Dante scholar, writer and secretary of the Bolognese Commissione dei testi di lingua. Further inscription (washed) on title page; sparse annotation throughout.

Repair to blank margin towards fore-edge of title page; minor foxing and staining throughout, but a clean and crisp copy.
Gamba 455. BMSTC (Italian), 253. Adams, F501. CNCE 19205.

 

Stock Code: 227990