N. p., [ca. 1780). Item #1128

12mo. 170 x 105 mm., [6 ½ x 4 ¼ inches].  14, [2] pp.  Later wrappers; with markings in ink in the margins; these marginal notes in red indicate corresponding volume and pagination.

An unusual survival of this publishers subscription prospectus for a seven volume work, by Regius Professor Isidoro Bianchi, that collects his monographs from journals and other publications on all subjects, from the fine arts, education, economics, science, epigraphy, and antiquarian studies.  The work is unusual in that all his writings are cited with their first place of publication and date.  Subscriptions of 50 soldi of Milanese money are solicited for which subscribers will receive a free copy.  This prospectus was written by Bianchi’s contemporary :Lorenzo Manini, a reformer himself and correspondent of Benjamin Franklin.

Educated by the Jesuits in Cremona and taking holy orders in 1756, Isidoro Bianchi (1731-1808) showed an aptitude for language and studied Greek and Latin, with an emphasis on antiquarian studies.  His skill was recognized, and he was invited to the monastery of Saint Gregory in Rome where he began corresponding with many of the Italian intellectuals of the day, including such luminaries as Beccaria, Pietro and Alessandro Verri, and Joseph Baretti.  In the 1760’s he was influenced by enlightenment ideas and became a contributor and supporter of the Milanese periodical l Café, and his connections with reform movements in Italy became of paramount importance to him.  He became involved with the Florentine periodical edited by Giovanni Lami La Novelle Letterarie , and the Venetian publication, La Minerva.  This brought him into conflict with his superiors and he was sent from Rome to Gubbio where he was instructed to meditate on his calling to holy orders and his commitment to the Church.  This period of exile strengthened his resolve, and he dedicated his life to helping to create a society where the happiness of mankind was the central focus of government and individual freedom was the goal of everyman.  This was to take the form of economic justice for artisans and peasants and culminated in the radical idea of distribution of land and property to those who produced the goods and services that geneated the wealth in Italian society.

To learn more about this fascinating writer and thinker see Franco Venturi’s biographical sketch cited below.  Venturi, the most important historian of the Italian Enlightenment is responsible for documenting this critical period in Italian history and resurrecting the life and works of the men and women who contributed participated.

Franco Venturi. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, v. 10.  Dino Carpanetto and Giuseppe Ricuperati, Italy and the Age of Reason, p. 266.  No copies of the are prospectus is cited in any of the online databases or opacs.

Price: $575.00