Ercolani - Eroine della Solitudine - 1664

Against the Freedom of Women: Silence and Asceticism, Between Delights and Wounds
This work is rather controversial. Although Ercolani claims to hold women in the highest regard, his position is such that the best female qualities are chastity, silence, segregation, and redemption.
Ercolani condemns female sexuality and tries to demonstrate what constitutes an adequate path of repentance through isolation and solitude. (Heller)
Opera by Girolamo Ercolani dedicated to the 'heroines' of sacred solitude, that is, to female figures withdrawn, penitents and contemplatives proposed as models of spiritual discipline. It is a typically Venetian book in its editorial layout and in its figurative taste: the engraved frontispiece is a rhetorical machine that transforms asceticism into an image, framing virtue within a theater of cartigli, putti and symbols. The biblical motto at the opening (Isaiah) legitimizes solitude as the 'hortus Domini', a separated and protected garden: cloister becomes a moral landscape and, at the same time, a device of control and propaganda of devotion.
Market value
For the seventeenth-century Venetian editions of Ercolani (in particular those among the heirs of Francesco Baba) the market is concrete but selective: value increases when the copy is complete with the engraved frontispiece and any plates, and when the paper is fresh. Indicatively: 800–900 euros per good and complete copy.

Physical description and condition
Contemporary binding in full parchment (vellum) with signs of wear, notable losses at the spine. Frontispiece engraved in copper with a large garland of thorns surrounding the title (explicit metaphor of asceticism and penance), side cherubs, coat of arms at the head, allegorical figures seated at the bottom. A copy with signs of use and small defects at the margins, consistent with handling. In old books, with a history spanning centuries, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Part II complete. Pp. (2); 16 nn. 775; 18 nn. (2). with 16 copper-engraved plates on full page. Frontispieces in framed engravings, with wood-engraved initials and drop caps.

Full title and author
The Heroines of Sacred Solitude by the Very Reverend Master Girolamo Ercolani, a Padovan of the Dominicans. Part Two.
In Venice, for the H.H. of Fran.co Baba (heirs of Francesco Baba), 1664.
Ercolani Girolamo

Context and Significance
The most 'powerful' invention is iconographic: the crown of thorns surrounding the text is not mere decoration, but a program. Feminine holiness is presented as a conquest through controlled wounds and discipline, not as uncontrollable ecstasy. Venice, the editorial capital, amplifies this message by turning it into an object: the title page functions as an emblem, almost a moral medal. From a symbolic perspective, the thorn is the boundary: it separates the inner garden from the noise of the world, and at the same time signals that access to the 'delight' of solitude comes at a price, a pact of renunciation.

Biography of the Author
Girolamo Ercolani (a Dominican, known as the "Paduan of the Preachers") worked as a compiler and moral narrator: he constructed a gallery of exemplary female lives, instrumental to seventeenth-century religious pedagogy. His editorial success is attested by its circulation in several cities and by the modern historiographical interest in these texts as tools for spiritual education and control.

Printing history and circulation
This 1664 Venetian edition held by the heirs of Francesco Baba is well documented in indexes and bibliographical references; there is also a complete digitization of Part Two (source: BNCF), useful for precise checks on structure and pagination.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Repertoires and catalogues (with verifiable indications)
Cormundus, Bibliography 1651–1699: records the edition “In Venice, per li h.h. di Fran.co Baba, 1664” for The Heroines of Sacred Solitude, Part Two.
Internet Archive (Google Books copy, BNCF): record of Part Two, Venice, per li h.h. di Fran.co Baba, 1664 (Google-id 7GOKivkpZy4C).
Google Books: entry for Part Two, Venice, for the heirs of Francesco Baba, 1664; presence of metadata useful for comparing copies.
Secondary literature: a specific citation from “The Heroines of Sacred Solitude. Part Two, Venice… 1664” with reference to a range of pages (pp. 583–693) confirming the broad structure of the volume.
Inventories and studies on editorial production: mentions of the work and references to SBN/EVS for other similar editions.
ICCU / OPAC SBN: present (it is necessary to extract and report here, without approximations, the collation data and the exact descriptive string of the specific 1664 edition).