Avvertimenti di Augusta Catarina Piccolomini Petra duchessa di Vastogirardi ad Ugone sou figlio. Canti tre con un ritratto di se medesima in versi.
Fermo: Per Giuseppe Alessandro Paccasassi, 1783. Item #1208 8vo. 200 x 145 mm, [7 ¾ x 5 ¾ inches]. lv,[1] pp. Title-page with floral woodcut vignette, woodcut head and tail pieces throughout the text; apparently missing frontispiece portrait. Bound in contemporary century decorative paste paper boards; spine rubbed with some loss but sound and not unattractive. With an 18th century bookplate of a Cardinal’s hat with a shield with three rosettes running in a diagonal across the shield. The title-page read in translation: Warnings of Augusta Catarina Piccolomini Petra Duchess of Vastogirardi to Ugone her son. Poems in three parts. With a portrait of herself in verse. The Dutchess Augusta Caterina Piccolomini Petra (d. 1799) was the wife of Nicola Petra, Duke of Vastogirardi (1693-1775) of the Molise Region of Italy, Southeast of Rome. What is known of her life is contained in the final part of her of this book, which describes in verse aspects of her life and her philosophy of how to live a good and fruitful existence. The Duchess was encouraged to write about her life by Cavalier Leonardo Marsili of Siena, a member of the noble family of Sienese courtiers. Augusta Caterina choses the word Avvertimenti in the title of her poems, a word which when translated into English is understood to mean “warning”. Not the usual declaration to a son from his mother, but in this case, in my be belie a call to recognize the responsibilities of a young man of his class to comport himself in a respectable manner in both his private and public life. The body of the poems is organized in three parts; part one is on complexities of life in society; part two is on how to live a happy life; and finally, on how to find the right wife and live in harmony together. The first edition was printed in Florence in 1765. It was followed by Torino in 1767, Lucca, 1779, this edition printed in Fermo in 1783, and another Florentine edition printed in 1785. There was an English language edition printed in Bristol 1777 by Dodsley. All editions are cited in only few copies. For this 1783 edition printed in Fermo, the ICCU (Italian Union Catalogue)cites only 2 copies in Italy and the edition is not cited in either NUC or OCLC. According to OCLC only the Florence 1785 edition is cited, listing copies at Harvard and Johns Hopkins. NUC cites only the Harvard copy. No other edition is cited in an American library.
Ferri, Pietro Leopoldo. Bibliotheca Femminile Italiana Raccolta Posseduta e Descritta. Padova, 1842, p. 287, citing only the Florence, Milan and Torino editions.
Price: $675.00