Le Pazzie Fortunate in Amore. Memorie de Miledi Dorvei, Scritte de la medesima l’anno passato . . .
Venezia: Presso Leonardo e Giammaria Fratelli Bassaglia, 1783. Item #963 First and only edition of one of Chiari’ final works, published two years before his death. Pietro Chiari, educated as a Jesuit but one who lost his vocation in the streets of Venice, was to become one of the most prolific and creative writers of 18th century Italy. He wrote plays, novels, romances, poetry, and reviews and over his career produced over 40 novels, many going into to numerous editions. Early in his career he created a character, the Marchesa N. N., and hit upon the idea of writing romances based on her position in society, her various lovers, her travels to Moscow and Paris, and in the end, a fictional memoire of her life. In all he wrote 10 novels featuring the Marchesa and won thousands of readers, eager for the next installment of her life and loves. Chiari’s success, especially during the 1750 and 60’s, placed him in direct competition with both Goldoni and Gozzi, two of Venice’s most belove authors. Le Pazzie Fortunate in Amore is set in England and France and focuses on a character, not unlike the Marchesa N. N., who is crazy with love, lives a cosmopolitan life, and has the wit and charm to beguile her suitors and endear herself to her protectors. Called Miledi (My Lady) throughout the romance, Chiari produces a story of the adventures of a single woman of the noble class and her travels and romances which crescendos in a fantasy ending in the comfort of her family estate. This is one of Chiari’s rarer works, having been printed in only one edition. Only four copies are cited in the Italian Union Catalogue (ICCU) and four copies in OCLC, one each at Harvard and Liverpool and two in the British Library. It is not cited in Morazzoni, where many of Chiari’s titles are listed. Laterza, Dizionario enciclopedico della letteratura Italiana, II, pp. 35-6. Wilkins, A History of Italian Literature, pp. 344-46, 352-3. For a more detailed biography that dicusses Chiari's place in the literature of the 18th century and his competition with Goldoni and Gozzi see: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 24
Together two volumes in one. 8vo. 185 x 125 mm., [7 ¼ x 5 inches]. viii, 127 pp.; iv, 119, [1] pp. Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece and two title-page woodcut vignettes. Bound in contemporary paste-paper boards, pink paper label on spine, with written title information, faded; binding showing some soiling and the text block is a bit loose in the binding, but intact.
Price: $850.00