Giovanni Delfino - Le Tragedie - 1733

Delfino, Giovanni.
The Tragedies of Giovanni Delfino, Venetian Senator... namely Cleopatra, Lucrezia, The Creso, The Medoro, now for the first time reduced to their true form:...
Padua, Giuseppe Comino, 1733

In-4° (mm 300x205), Pages [16], XXXII, 629,[1] with the portrait of the author engraved at the beginning, beautiful initials and endings engraved in copper. A nearly perfect copy. A prestigious and very beautiful edition.

Delfino was not a professional dramatist, but a man of immense power. He was a Venetian Senator, then Patriarch of Aquileia and finally Cardinal. His tragedies are written in a solemn, classical style, very different from the brisk rhythm of Cicognini. They represent the refined taste of the Venetian aristocracy of the Seicento.
Giuseppe Comino was one of the most celebrated printers of the eighteenth century. The “Cominiane” editions are famous among bibliophiles for:

- The quality of the paper (which indeed still looks very white and fresh).
- The clarity of the types.
- The extreme philological care of the texts.

This is a library book of a noble house. It is a prestige object, printed to endure through the centuries and to show the importance of the author.