Salvadori - La Flora - 1628

Ducal Weddings at the Theater: The Farnese and the Medici, Spouses in 17th-Century Florence
Prime, very rare edition. A splendid example of baroque musical theater designed to celebrate a significant dynastic alliance. With five magnificent scenic copperplate engravings by Alfonso Parigi, it is among the rarest and most fascinating Medicean festival books.
Sold at auction for EUR 8,125.00
Market value
A copy in good condition, complete with plates and with minimal restoration, can exceed 8,000 euros. The value of the engravings, the wedding theme, and the rarity of the edition make the work highly sought after by collectors of baroque celebration and entertainment books.

Physical description and condition
Pages 100, with a numbered engraved title page and 5 copperplate-engraved plates on double pages, signed in the plate by Alfonso Parigi the Younger. Slight restorations to the title page and the margins of the first plate. Binding in reverse calf leather, decorated spine with a red Moroccan leather inlay, renewed endpapers. Pagination: A-L⁴ M⁶. The text is adorned with initials and woodcut ornaments.

FULL TITLE
La Flora, or the Feast of Flowers, Fauola d'Andrea Salvadori, represented in music and performed at the Teatro del Serenissimo Gran Duca for the royal wedding of the most serene Odoardo Farnese and the Most Serene Margherita of Tuscany, Dukes of Parma and Piacenza, etc. Dedicated to the most serene spouses.
Firenze, Pietro Cecconcelli, 1628
Andrea Salvadori

Context and Significance
This 'fauola in music' was staged on October 14, 1628, at the Teatro degli Uffizi, on the occasion of the wedding between Odoardo Farnese and Margherita de' Medici, both sixteen years old. The event was part of a long and complex political project between the two powerful ducal families. The show involved the most eminent artists of the Medici court, including Marco da Gagliano, the leading composer of Florentine melodrama, and Alfonso Parigi the Younger, scenographer and architect.

AUTHOR
Andrea Salvadori was born in Florence in 1591 and died in 1634. A court poet and author of dramas for music, he was one of the leading librettists of Medici Florence. Serving Grand Duke Cosimo II, he was active as a ceremonialist, official poet, and organizer of celebratory performances, often collaborating with the leading composers and scenographers of the time. His work reflects the aesthetics and politics of Medici power in the first half of the seventeenth century.

Printing History
Published by Pietro Cecconcelli, official printer of the Medicean court. The edition is unique in its form: no reprints or contemporary variants are known. It was cataloged by Moreni, who describes it as 'rare' and praises its engravings; other bibliographic sources include the Berlin Katalog (4114), Nagler, and Watanabe. The remaining complete copies of the plates are extremely scarce.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Moreni II, 292 – 'with very beautiful branches by Alfonso Parigi'
Moreni, Medici, p. 306 – 'rare'
Berlin Catalog 4114
Nagler, Theatre Festivals, pp. 139–142
Watanabe, Spectacles and Festivals of the European Renaissance, n. 1277