D'Alessandro - Paragone de' Cavalieri - 1711

IN FOLIO - RICHLY ILLUSTRATED - ONE OF THE RAREST AND MOST IMPORTANT WORKS ON HORSEMANSHIP
First edition of this very important work on horsemanship, on horse care, and on the history and technique of fencing.
La Pietra paragone de’ cavalieri is a masterpiece of late Italian Baroque that unites technical treatise, Marinist poetry, and knightly culture, offering a unique look at the equestrian world of the Kingdom of Naples. Divided into five books, the work deals with riding, bridling, the variety of bits, the complex manege traces (the “circoli seu torni”) and the medicine of the horse. All of it is accompanied by an imposing iconographic apparatus: 140 full-page copperplate engravings, including portraits of Neapolitan fencers, marks of horse breeds, allegorical figures, and even a rhinoceros inspired by Dürer.
A text celebrated from the very beginning by the public, it enjoyed great fortune among nobles, fencers, and scholars of veterinary science.
Cf. General Bibliography of fencing, 59-60; Brunet I, 159; D'Afflitto, 212, the work was received by the public largely with applause, also for its rich iconographic apparatus: the text is accompanied by numerous illustrations of fencing patterns, of animals (including the rhinoceros [sic!] of Dürerian inspiration), of portraits of illustrious Neapolitans in the fencing of his time, both on horseback and in half-bust, and an incredibly wide range of bridles. Huth p. 28. Brunet I, 159. Graesse I, 68.
A copy for sale online at EUR 25,000.00

CONDITION REPORT
In-folio (mm 355x225). Sheets generally very well preserved, including the frontispiece, portrait, and title page untrimmed, as well as 140 engravings, all intact and perfectly inked.
Physiological browning in the text, absolutely not bothersome.
The 142 engravings, in addition to the frontispiece, are complete and well preserved.
Contemporary double flyleaves (2 + 2), perfectly preserved, with an old handwritten ex libris on the recto of the first flyleaf.
Counterproofs on originally decorated paper. The cuts are completely gilded and engraved in drypoint.
From pages 63 to 73, professional restoration with loss of some words in the titles and text, no illustrations involved.
Very refined contemporary binding in full leather, richly decorated in gold. Spine with six raised bands, with the title and decorations incised in gold. Frontispiece depicting "two graceful and noble destriers" and the author's portrait, both copper-engraved; title page untouched, adorned with a large woodcut border.
Sample with white L2 paper correctly numbered 47 on the recto and 48 on the verso. Two leaves of plates between pages 342 and 345, editorially numbered as pages (343-344).
Errata pages (5)-(6) on the front matter. Pages 12 and following, 402; (4).

FULL TITLES & AUTHORS
Touchstone of the knights, divided into five books.
In Naples, Domenico-Antonio Parrino, 1711
Giuseppe D'Alessandro

CONTENTS
In 1711, Giuseppe D'Alessandro published in Naples the Pietra paragone de' cavalieri, a composed work that includes sonnets, letters, and treatises of various kinds. The idolized image of the horse, the center of a singular equestrian microcosm, constitutes the coordinating element of the collection, which alternates with amorous sonnets and those of philosophical inspiration, rhymes extolling the glories and virtues of noble quadrupeds, treatises on the way to care for their "infirmities", and even engravings of the marks of the most prized breeds in the Kingdom of Naples. In the variegated bestiary of Baroque lyric poetry, the horse indeed represents a constant pole of attraction, from the sonnets of Marino, Preti, Fontanella, Bruni to the late canzoniere of D'Alessandro, which welcomes and proposes models and themes of a poetic taste approaching the end.

The author belongs to the ranks of the epigones of Marinism, who push to extreme consequences the poetics of the bizarre, the extravagant, the peregrine, intensifying the tones and situations of the early Baroque. He does not limit himself, in fact, to admiring the rapid and foaming leap of the "corsier volante" (cf. To a Horse), but also writes odes and hymns to the saddle, to the stirrup, to the spur. Fascinated especially by the dynamism of the animal, impetuous and pawing, he juxtaposes conventional metaphors of the type "mane-wind" with the bold contrast "terrestrial flyer" (cf. To a very swift and noble horse) to depict the unstoppable momentum of the horse in full gallop.

Consistent with the late Baroque taste is the emphatic assertion that D'Alessandro directs toward his beloved horse toward the end of the sonnet: "For you my sheets gain honor" and the extended concluding metaphor: "Your back is but a throne / For crowned heroes and demigods." Alongside works inspired by an incredible equestrian innology, there are several amorous sonnets that vary the usual themes of seventeenth-century erotic lyric with a celebratory sequence of a beautiful woman on horseback, a horse restrained by a beautiful woman, and the like, but they present banal wordplays: "Moro per donna mora" (see also Per una donna mora) in which the elaborate locutions of conceptism are reduced to stereotyped formulas.

Giuseppe D'Alessandro was born in 1656 in Pescolanciano (Province of Campobasso), in "citeriore Aprutio", to Duke Fabio and Isabella Amendola. Following the premature death of his brother, he became the third duke and seventh baron of the lordships of Pescolanciano, Carovilli, Castiglione, Pietrabbondante, Civitanova, and Civitavecchia. To these domains were added the towns of Roccaraso, Castelgiudice, and Roccacinquemila, brought as a dowry by his wife, Baroness A. M. Marchesani, of Salernitan origin.