La Secchia Rapita. Poema Eroicomico. La Prefazione, e la annotazioni di Giannandrea Barotti Ferrarese e La Vita del poeta composta da Lodovico Antonio Muratori.
Modena: Per Bartolomeo Soliani Stamp. Ducale, 1744. Item #1231 4to. 270 x 200 mm., [10 ½ x 8 inches]. LX, 92, 489, [1] pp. Illustrated with a full-page portrait engraved by Bartol. Bonvicini dated 1738, allegorical frontispiece designed by Francesco Villiani and engraved by Francesco Zucchi, 15 full-page engraved plates, two maps, one folding plate in the text, and finally a woodcut illustrating the famous Tower of Modena, unsigned. Bound in contemporary French speckled calf, raised bands, a red title label and gilt designs in the panels of the spine; corners pumped, and some minor rubbing to the joints. Late 18th century ownership label of M. Dupleix, de Bacquencourt, Intendant d’Amiens. “The subject of Tassoni's poem was the war which the inhabitants of Modena declared against those of Bologna on the refusal of the latter to restore to them some towns which had been occupied ever since the time of the Emperor Frederick II. The author mischievously made use of a popular tradition, according to which it was believed that a certain wooden ‘bucket’, kept in the treasury of Modena cathedral, came from Bologna, and that it had been forcibly taken away by the Modenese. Every episode of the poem, though beginning in the epic manner, ends in some hilarious absurdity” (Encyclopedia Britannica). The Prefazione and La Vita da Tassoni, which precede the poem, were written by Giannandrea Barotti and Lodovico Antonio Muratori respectively. Barotti, a third generation Ferrarese poet and antiquarian, provides information on the origins of the of this mock-heroic epic poem which was first published in 1622. He includes the history of the work and how it evolved overtime and provides a bibliography of printed editions with commentary on the editors who preceded him. He also provided the notes that appear in the margins of the poem, offering interpretation and insights into Tassoni’s world at the time the work was written. Muratori, the noted antiquarian from Modena, used the archives at the Modena State Library, later called the Biblioteca Estense di Modena, to write his biography of Tassoni and provides documents which go back the origins of the family which is delineated by a folding genealogical table of the family line. The book is illustrated with engravings representing Florentine, Ferrarese, Venetian, Bolognese and Modenese styles, by such noted artists as Domenico Maria Gratta, Pietro Gradici, Francesco Villani, and Francesco Zugni. The designs are engraved by such noted engravers as Giuseppe Benedetti, Andrea Bolzoni, Bartolomeo Bonvicini and Piero Locatelli, to name a few. In addition to the 17 full-page engravings, each of the twelve cantos in the poem begin with an engraved initial letter and end with an engraved cartouche. As a result of this collaboration, this edition of Tassoni’s La Secchia Rapita is considered one of the great 18th century Italian illustrated books and a must have for anyone collecting in this field. Gamba. Serie dei Testi di Lingua Italiana, 1765. Pietro Pulliati, Il Libro Illustrato dal XIV al XVIII Secolo, no. 92. See also the biography of Tassoni written by Luigi Fassò in 1937 in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani that can be found on the Treccani website.
Price: $4,000.00