Thursday, April 15, 2010

Recently acquired rare and antiquarian books


Here are some recent special purchases of note - 

BERQUIN, Arnaud. Romances. Paris: Ruault, 1776.  8vo, [2], XXVI, 73 pp. With 6 engraved plates by N. Delaunay jeune, E. de Ghendt and N. Ponce after C. P. Marillier  as well as 12 pages of music.

[DIDEROT, Denis]. Le fils naturel, ou les epreuves de la vertu. Comedie en cinq actes. Amsterdam (i.e. Paris): no printer, 1757.  8vo, IX, [1], 11-299, [1] p.
First edition of Diderot's first dramatic work.

[MIRABEAU, Victor Riqueti de]. L'Ami Des Hommes, Ou Traité De La Population. Avignon: No printer, 1756.  12mo, 3 volumes. 431, [1]: 578, [2]: 577, [1] pp. With etched frontispiece by Fressard after Meltay.  
First edition, to complement the revised second edition already owned by Stanford.

GUARINI, Giovanni Battista. Rime. Venice: B. Ciotti, 1598. 4to, [4], 137, [3] leaves. With fine engraved title-page (Johnson, Italian Engraved Title-pages, p. 22, no. 40). Large woodcut initials and numerous large woodcut tail-pieces. Some faint, mostly marginal, dampstains on some leaves. 

From dealer’s description: “First edition of the famous and popular poems of Giovanni Battista Guarini (1538-1612) who served Alfonso II, duke of Ferrara, as a diplomat and courtier from 1567 and replace Torquato Tasso as court poet in 1579. This is a collection of his shorter works which is handsomely printed with numerous large woodcut initials, head and tail pieces which often dominate the page. A very handsomely printed and decorated book, which served as a source for composers including Marenzio, Giaches de Wert, Monteverdi and Filippo de Monte.”

LUTI, Giovanni Battista Filippo.  Vita della Venerabile Serva di Dio Margarita Bichi. Nobile vedova sanese, e del terz’ordine de’ Minori Conventuali di San Francesco... Siena, Stamperia del Pubblico, 1699. 
From the dealer’s description: “First edition of a remarkable late-Renaissance work of political hagiography.  On the eve of the momentous 1526 siege to Siena laid by Florence and the Florentine pope, the Popolari party, who had supplanted and exiled the Noveschi in the government of Siena, rely on the vision and leadership of the noble lady Margherita Bichi, a gentile widow whose ascetic and devotional holiness are said to grant her a dialogue with the Virgin Mary.”

 [METASTASIO, Pietro (?)].  Il Conclave dell'Anno 1774, Dramma per Musica da recitarsi nel Teatro delle dame nel Carnevale del 1775 dedicato alle medisime dame. [Rome]: [ca. 1775]. 4to, [41] pp. 4 blank leaves. Manuscript in a small neat hand in brown ink.
From the dealer’s description: “A bitter satire on the prolonged proceedings to elect Pope Clement XIV. It was printed clandestinely by Molini in Florence and was immediately suppressed. An edition was published in Rome in 1775.”

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Sarah Sussman, curator of French and Italian Collections