Il Pastor Fido, Tragicommedia Pastorale.

DEFINITIVE EDITION OF GUARINI'S PASTORAL DRAMA.

Engraved title and portrait of the author, and six full-page plates. Woodcut headpieces, ornaments and initials, some historiated, throughout, with Ciotti's device on title page of second part. 

2 parts in one vol. 4to (212 x 150mm). [16]ff, 488pp; [6]ff, 64 pp. Correction to text (insertion of line omitted in printing), p.96. Nineteenth-century vellum over pasteboard, spine with gilt bands and ornaments, and gilt-lettered title and date in morocco labels in second and fourth compartments (corners lightly bumped, minor worming to lower part of upper hinge, labels chipped).  

Venice, Ciotto, 

Definitive edition of Giovanni Battista Guarini’s pastoral drama, the text fixed by Guarini himself in this, the twentieth impression of the text (although Venetian printer Ciotto’s erratic numbering has prompted some to suggest that the generous numbering was little more than a marketing ploy). In what Gamba refers to as the ‘copious number’ of editions of the text, he ranks this among the best. Alongside the attractive engraved title page, this edition has an engraved portrait of the author by Lukas Kilian, and six full-page engravings, the third of which is signed by F. Valegio.

Provenance: Bookplates of Rinaldo Cenni on front paste-down and verso of front free endpaper, that of collector Giorgio Fanan on recto. ‘D. Parikian’ inscribed on front free endpaper. Open tear in lower blank corner of pp.38, 449, some foxing and light staining throughout.

Gamba, 556. D. H. Thomas, ‘An Annotated Checklist of Editions of the Works of Battista Guarini’ (Oxford, Taylor Institution Library, 2010).

Stock Code: 227636