Salvator Rosa - Satire - 1787

SALVATOR ROSA, THE PAINTER PHILOSOPHER WHO CHALLENGED NAPLES AND ROME WITH HIS FEROCIOUS SATIRES
Rare and fascinating 18th-century Livorno edition of Salvator Rosa’s Satires, accompanied by the Author’s Life and enriched by elegant copperplate engravings. The work reveals the most unsettling and modern face of the great Neapolitan artist: not only a painter of stormy landscapes and witchcraft, but a satirical poet, moralist, and rebellious spirit of 17th-century Italy. The false typographical place of printing “London” reflects the cosmopolitan taste and editorial strategies of Livorno in the 18th century, often prone to using fictitious printing locations to confer international prestige on publications. The copy preserves its authentic rustic bound cover in period card, rarely surviving.
MARKET VALUE
18th-century editions of the Satires of Salvator Rosa complete with the copperplate engravings and preserved in the original contemporaneous binding are increasingly sought after on the international antiquarian market. Comparable copies generally range between €400 and €600, with higher valuations for margin copies, genuine and untrimmed as the present.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Original binding in waiting-cardboard with title handwritten on the back. Spine detached from the pages. Calcographic portrait of Salvator Rosa and allegorical frontispiece engraved. Pages with some foxing and physiological browning. In old books, with a centuries-long history, a few imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. (2); 378; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Satire di Salvator Rosa.
Livorno, presso Tomaso Masi e Compagnia, 1787.
Salvator Rosa.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The Satires of Salvator Rosa constitute one of the most violent and fascinating moral invectives of the Italian Baroque. Through poems devoted to Painting, Music, War, Poetry, and Envy, Rosa directly attacks social corruption, cultural hypocrisy, and the mediocrity of his time. The tone, strongly Juvenalian, alternates sarcasm, moral fury, and almost theatrical visions. In the 18th century these works were rediscovered and reprinted in educated and libertine circles, especially in editorial centers open to international commerce such as Livorno, a city deeply linked to English mercantile networks. The use of the false printing place “London” fits precisely into this editorial strategy: to evoke modernity, intellectual freedom, and cosmopolitan prestige.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Salvator Rosa was born near Naples in 1615 and was one of the most original European artists of the 17th century. Painter, engraver, actor, musician, and poet, he worked between Naples, Florence, and Rome, developing a visionary, tempestuous, and profoundly nonconformist style. Renowned for wild landscapes, scenes of magic, roaming philosophers, and dramatic compositions, he profoundly influenced European Romantic taste. His Satires contributed to shaping his image as a rebel artist and independent intellectual.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The Satires were published and reprinted several times between the 17th and 18th centuries, often accompanied by scholarly annotations and biographical apparatus. The Livorno late 18th-century editions are particularly interesting for their semi-clandestine and international character. Livorno, free port and Mediterranean cultural crossroads, indeed hosted a dynamic editorial environment relatively freer than other Italian centers. Copies preserved in the original cardboard binding are today much less common than those rebound later in leather in the 19th century.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Passano, Salvator Rosa in the artistic and satirical literature of the 17th century, Naples.
Croce, The Theaters of Naples and Salvator Rosa.
Mannocci, Salvator Rosa 1615–1673, exhibition catalog, London.
Bénézit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, under the entry “Rosa, Salvator.”
British Museum, engraving catalogs relating to Salvator Rosa.
ICCU / OPAC SBN, bibliographic records of the Livorno editions of the Satires from the 18th century.
Graesse, Trésor de livres rares et précieux, under the entry.
Brunet, Manuel du libraire, IV, pp. 1410–1411.