Vincenzio Piazza - Bona Espugnata - 1694

In 8° small (mm 173x115); pp. xvi, 303, (1 bianca), with 12 full-page copper-engraved plates depicting scenes from the poem.
The Bona Espugnata: A masterpiece of seventeenth-century epic poetry.
This important first edition in ottave (octaves) celebrates one of the most significant undertakings of the Order of Santo Stefano: the conquest of the Algerian city of Bona, which occurred in 1609. The expedition, which involved 200 knights and 2,000 infantry, was undertaken to avenge the blood of confrères who fell at the hands of the corsairs. The Order itself, established in 1562 by Cosimo I de’ Medici, represented at the time the defensive bulwark of the Tuscan coast against pirate raids.
The work is not only a historical document but a literary milestone that allowed its author, Vincenzo Piazza (1670-1745), to be welcomed among the ranks of the Academy of the Crusca. Its success was such that numerous reprints were required, with criticism — represented by Belloni — praising its structural balance, the clarity of its style, and its ability to sustain interest without dwelling on superfluous digressions.

Details of the copy and the iconographic apparatus:
The volume presents in a solid full contemporary parchment, with slight signs of age that do not compromise its charm.
The decorative apparatus was entrusted to exceptional masters on the drawing of Mauro Oddi (pupil of Pietro da Cortona). The plates bear the signatures of the Flemish Arnold V. Westerhout and the famous Parisian Nicola Dorigny.

The copy is overall good, though showing some light foxing and minimal defects to the binding, complete with both the illustrated frontispiece and the author’s portrait. Sporadic traces of extinct tarletto at the lower margins of a few pages.

The work is catalogued in the main bibliographic repertories: Belloni (p. 207), BL 17th Italian (II, 681), Graesse (V, 279), Olschki (18617), Piantanida (2834) and Quadrio (VI, p. 690).