Italian Plays of the Renaissance
Transcription
Italian Plays of the Renaissance
SHORT LIST OF ITALIAN PLAYS OF THE RENAISSANCE IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY EDITIONS WITH THE ADDITION OF A SEVENTEENTH AND AN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IMPRINT FEBRUARY 2015 I am pleased to present a fully illustrated short list of Italian plays of the Renaissance, some in first editions, and all but one printed in the sixteenth century. One of the items may well be the only copy extant, as the whereabouts of the only recorded copy has remained unknown since the 1870s. Happy hunting. Institutions can be billed to accommodate their requirements. Sam Gatteño Sam Gatteño Books 542 Lakeland Grosse Pointe, MI 48230 Website: http://www.samgattenobooks.com/ Email: [email protected] (313) 885-2254 (office) (313) 587-4582 (mobile) (313) 885-2254 (fax) 1 MOST LIKELY UNIQUE 2 1. Brigliano, Giovanni Battista. Gli Penosi Affetti; Egloga Pastorale. In Napoli: Per Egidio Longo, 1628. Duodecimo. 103pp. A12 [-A1 & -A10], B12-D12, E4. Lacks two leaves. Later quarter sheep over marbled boards, repaired. Title label. In the bio-bibliography compiled by Pietro Martorana, entitled, "Notizie Biographiche e Bibliographiche degli Scrittori del Dialetto Napolitano," Napoli, Presso Chiurazzi Editore, 1874, the author notes the work briefly on page 42, but enlarges upon it in the Appendix, page 427, where he says, " Brigliano Gio. Battista. Un semplice ricordo da taccuino, ci fece scrivere poche parole alla pag 42 citando nudamente Brigliano detto il masturzo, ma nel corso di questo lavoro avendo acquistato il libro citato, diremo, Gli penosi affetti egloga pastorale in Napolitana e Toscana lingua di Gio. Battista Brigliano Dottor di Legge Napolitano. Detto il Masturzo. In Napoli, per Egidio Longo, 1628. Con licenza de’Superiori. Esso è in 12 di pag 103, ed è dedicato dall’autore al Sig. Camillo Masini in data da Napoli 20 Luglio 1628." In 1875, Camillo Minieri Riccio, in his “Notizie biographiche e bibliographiche degli scrittori napoletani fioriti nel secolo XVII I cognomi dei quali cominciano con la lettera B,” Napoli: Tipografia di Raffaele Rinaldi e Giuseppe Sellitto, 1877, also makes a brief reference to this work. Other than these two entries, no reference to this work can be found in any of the standard bibliographies that I have consulted. The whereabouts of Martorana’s copy is unknown (unless, of course, this happens to be the one). $2,800 3 2. Cavalcanti, Bartolomeo. Givditio sopra la tragedia di Canace et Macareo con molte utili considerationi circa l'arte tragica, et di altri poemi con la tragedia appresso. (second part) Canace. Tragedia di Messer Sperone Speroni Nobile Padvano. In Lucca: per Vincentio Busdrago, 4 May 1550. Octavo. 95ff. Nineteenth-century marbled boards over sheep spine. $2,200 4 FIVE FIRST EDITIONS, AND A SECOND, BOUND TOGETHER 3A. Cecchi, Giovanni Maria. La Dote. In Vinegia: Appresso Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, et fratelli, 1556. Duodecimo. 47ff. A12-D12 (D12 blank, wanting). With several historiated capitals. Contemporary vellum. Index Aurel. 134.844. Bound with five other plays of Cecchi: Gl'incantesimi, La Moglie, I Dissimili, L'Assivolo, and La Stiava. Cecchi’s works, a Florentine playwright who was one of the most prominent figures of sixteenth-century Italian comedy, are noted today for their portrayals of contemporary Italian speech and mannerisms. $9,900 5 3B. Cecchi, Giovanni Maria. L'Assivolo. In Vinegia: Appresso Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, et fratelli, 1550. Duodecimo. 45, [i]ff. A12-D12 (D11-12, both blank, wanting). First edition. With several historiated capitals. Contemporary vellum. Index Aurel. 134.844. Bound with five other plays of Cecchi: Gl'incantesimi, La Dote, La Moglie, I Dissimili, and La Stiava. See 3A 6 3C. Cecchi, Giovanni Maria. La Stiava. In Vinegia: Appresso Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, et fratelli, 1550. Duodecimo. 36ff. A12-C12. First edition. With several historiated capitals. Contemporary vellum. Index Aurel. 134.844. Bound with five other plays of Cecchi: Gl'incantesimi, La Dote, La Moglie, I Dissimili, and L'Assivolo. See 3A 7 3D. Cecchi, Giovanni Maria. La Moglie. In Vinegia: Appresso Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, et fratelli, 1550. Duodecimo. 43, [i]ff. A12-C12, D8. First edition. With several historiated capitals. Contemporary vellum. Index Aurel. 134.844. Bound with five other plays of Cecchi: Gl'incantesimi, La Dote, I Dissimili, L'Assivolo, and La Stiava. See 3A 8 3E. Cecchi, Giovanni Maria. Gl'incantesimi. In Vinegia: Appresso Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari,et fratelli, 1550. Duodecimo. 42ff. A12-C12, D6. First edition. With several historiated capitals. Contemporary vellum. Index Aurel. 134.844. Bound with five other plays of Cecchi: La Dote, La Moglie, I Dissimili, L'Assivolo, and La Stiava. See 3A 9 3F. Cecchi, Giovanni Maria. I Dissimili. In Vinegia: Appresso Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, et fratelli, 1550. Duodecimo. 45, [i]ff. A12-D12 (D11 blank; D12 also blank, wanting). First edition. With several historiated capitals. Contemporary vellum. Index Aurel. 134.844. Bound with five other plays of Cecchi: Gl'incantesimi, La Dote, La Moglie, L'Assivolo, and La Stiava. See 3A 10 11 4. Giraldi Cinthio, Giovanni Battista. Le Tragedie di M. Gio. Battista Giraldi Cinthio, Nobile Ferrarese: cioe Orbecche, Altile, Didone, Antivalomeni, Cleopatra, Arrenopia, Evphimia, Epitia, Selene. In Venetia: Appresso Giulio Cesare Cagnacini, 1583. Octavo. [xvi], 135, [i], 143, 157, [iii], 118, [ii], 127, [i], 142, [ii], 135, [i], 118, [ii], 149, [iii]pp. First edition. Italic letter, Cagnacini’s woodcut device on recto and woodcut portrait of author within ornate frame on verso of all title-pages, woodcut initials and ornaments. Contemporary vellum. With Cinthio's portrait on the verso of each title-page, including the general title-page. BM STC Italian Books, p. 305; Gamba 1435 - 'e assai rare questa Raccolta;' Brunet II, 1607; Adams G715 (UL copy, parts 1-4 only). Nine works in one; general title-page and separate title-pages and prefaces to each play. First edition of the complete collected dramatic works of Giraldi Cinthio (1506-1573), novelist and poet from Ferrara, sometime professor of literature at the university there and from 1542-1560 private secretary to Duke Ercole II (for whom the plays were written and performed) and Alfonso II d’Este. He occupied the chair of rhetoric at Pavia from 1568 until shortly before his death. The principal works of Cinthio were these nine tragedies and the Hecatommithi, a large collection of tales in the style of Boccaccio and Bandello. He himself adapted several of their plots as the basis for his plays. Cinthio was the single most important influence in sixteenth century Italian tragedy and his Orbecche is the first known vernacular tragedy to have been produced on a modern European stage. Its influence was felt far outside Italy, Luigi Giovio, a generation later, speaks of it as the model of all subsequent tragedies. Shakespeare borrowed freely from Cinthio for ‘Othello’ and ‘Measure for Measure’, and Cinthio’s ‘Cleopatra’ telling of her doomed love for Marc Anthony may have been further inspiration to him. Like Shakespeare, Cinthio liked exotic locations; his ‘Arrenopia’ takes place between Scotland and Ireland and ‘Gli Antivalomeni’ is set in London. These five act dramas are among the first to contain typical elements of modern European theatre, using psychological violence and horror in spectacular function with the dramatic action structured in real time. The series is rarely found complete as they were also sold separately. $2,700 12 5. Grazzini, Antonfrancesco (detto Il Lasca). La Pinzochera comedia. In Venetia: Appresso Bernardo Giunti, e Fratelli, 1582. Octavo, 48ff. Modern boards. Title-page mounted; lower part of title-page in facsimile. $800 13 6. Grazzini, Antonfrancesco (detto Il Lasca). La Gelosia comedia. In Venetia: Appresso Bernardo Giunti, e Fratelli, 1582. Octavo, 66ff. Nineteenth-century half sheep over marbled boards. With an armorial bookplate - with motto: Constantia et Labore. $1,500 14 7. Grazzini, Antonfrancesco, compiler. Tutti I Trionfi Carri, Mascherate o Canti Carnascialeschi andati per Firenze dal tempo del Magnifico Lorenzo de' Medici fino all' Anno 1559. In questa seconda Edizione corretti, con diversi MSS. collazionati, delle loro varie lezioni arricchiti notabilmente accresciuti, E co' Ritratti di Ciascun Poeta Adornati. Cosmopoli [Lucca]: n.p. [Pel Benedini], 1750. Octavo. Two volumes. I: lx, 256pp.; II: 257- 594, [2]pp. I: []1, a8-c8, d6, A8-Q8; II: R8-Z8, Aa8-Oo8, Pp2. Engraved allegorical title-pages to both volumes. Second edition. This long-delayed second edition was edited by Rinaldo Maria Bracci, under the pseudonym of Neri del Boccia. According to Brunet, there were two issues; this one belongs to the first issue. Contemporary vellum. With 43 plates; 36 in the first volume and 7 in the second. Brunet, V, 988-989; Gamba 268; Graesse, VI: II, p. 217; Ceresoli, p.129. The compiler, Antonio Grazzini, better known as "Il Lasca, Academico Fiorentino," was a quarrelsome scholar who is regarded as one of the masters of Italian prose. This long-delayed second edition was edited by Rinaldo Maria Bracci, under the pseudonym of Neri del Boccia. Lorenzo di Medici was fond of the sorts of public spectacles during which these songs were performed and wrote numerous pieces himself--including the great & sprightly "Quant' bella giovinezza" that opens this collection. And even Machiavelli composed a "Canto de' Diavoli." This form of popular verse died along with the festivities that had given birth to it. $1,000 15