Filelfo / Poliziano - Epistolae - 1564

THE PESTILENCE OF 1427, BOOKS, CLOTHING, AND ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS - TESTIMONIES OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
Fine Venetian edition of Francesco Filelfo’s Epistulae breviores et elegantiores, published in 1564 by Comino da Trino of Monferrato. The collection selects from the vast Filelfan epistolary correspondence letters particularly suitable for humanistic formation, pairing them with some familiar letters of Angelo Poliziano. Behind the scholastic function emerges an extraordinary snapshot of the intellectual and daily life of Humanism: Filelfo writes about books, clothing, ancient authors, personal relationships, culture and contemporary events, including the plague of 1427. A humanist among the most cosmopolitan of the Quattrocento, Filelfo stayed in Constantinople, directly deepened his knowledge of Greek, and contributed decisively to the transmission in Italy of classical culture. Elegant woodcut title page within an editorial frame; exemplar preserved in an eighteenth-century full parchment binding with manuscript titles on the spine and speckled edges.

REASONS FOR COLLECTING
* GREAT HUMANIST – Filelfo was a leading figure in the rediscovery and transmission of Greek and Latin culture in fifteenth-century Italy.
* LIVING TESTIMONY – The letters address plague, books, clothing, ancient authors and many concrete aspects of humanistic society.
* FILELFO AND POLIZIANO – In addition to the Filelfo selection, there are familiar letters by Angelo Poliziano, another key figure of the Humanism.
* VENICE 1564 – Elegant sixteenth-century edition by Comino da Trino with a woodcut title page and an ancient parchment binding.

MARKET VALUE
An edition of interest primarily for its content and cultural context. Filelfo is a central author of Italian Humanism, and the immediacy of the topics treated makes the volume more easily communicable than many Latin epistolary collections. The market remains specialized, but includes collectors of Humanism, epistolography, the history of classical culture, and Venetian typography. The eighteenth-century parchment, the speckled edges, the old-hand annotations, and the elegant title page reinforce the antiquarian character of the exemplar. Commercially, the main strength lies in presenting the book as direct testimony of the intellectual and material life of Humanism. 600-800 euros.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Title page with an elegant woodcut within an editorial frame. The last quires are slightly browned; some small signs of time present. Annotations in an old hand on the front paste-down and on the title page. Full eighteenth-century parchment with manuscript titles on the spine and speckled edges. Overall an interesting antique exemplar, with usage and provenance characteristics that preserve its historical character. [8], 104 leaves.
In old books with a multiyear history, there may be some imperfections, not always noted in the description.

FULL TITLE
Francisci Philelphi Epistolae breviores, et elegantiores, atque adolescentibus magis conducentes, ex toto originario exemplari iam denuo transumptae. Accedunt Angeli Politiani epistolae quaedam familiares.
Venetiis, apud Cominum de Tridino Montisferrati, 1564.

AUTHOR
Francesco Filelfo (Tolentino, 1398 – Florence, 1481), with letters by Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494).

HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Francesco Filelfo belongs to the generation of the great Italian humanists who recovered directly the language and literature of Greek. Trained between Padua and Venice, in 1420-1421 he reached Constantinople, where he perfected his knowledge of Greek and came into close contact with the Byzantine intellectual milieu. Upon returning to Italy, he carried with him manuscripts and knowledge that helped spread Greek literature in Western humanist culture. His long career crossed some of Italy’s major cultural centers. The epistolary is an exceptional source for understanding the world of humanists from within: patronage, teaching, book circulation, literary rivalries, family matters, epidemics, and material life.

LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE
The Epistolae constitute one of the most significant aspects of Filelfo’s work because they fuse literary refinement with personal testimony. The humanist letter is simultaneously a Latin stylistic exercise, a means of communication, and a historical document. This selection privileges, as the title states, shorter and more elegant letters deemed particularly suitable for the young. A sixteenth-century reader could therefore use them as models of Latin composition, while entering into contact with the culture and daily life of the Quattrocento. The association with some letters by Angelo Poliziano further strengthens the humanistic and pedagogical value of the collection.

PRINTING HISTORY AND RARITY
The edition was printed in Venice in 1564 by Comino da Trino di Monferrato, a printer active in the great Venetian publishing market of the sixteenth century. Filelfo’s Epistolae enjoyed considerable editorial success already in the early decades of printing and continued to be published throughout the sixteenth century, also in selections intended for teaching. This diffusion testifies to the author’s importance in European humanistic education. The 1564 edition belongs to the tradition of abbreviated, pedagogically organized collections; the exemplar gains further interest thanks to its ancient parchment, speckled edges, and manuscript annotations, evidences of its actual use in the following centuries.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
ICCU – Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo Unico delle biblioteche italiane e per le informazioni bibliografiche; SBN, catalogo delle edizioni antiche italiane, Francesco Filelfo, Epistolae breviores, Venezia, Comino da Trino, 1564.
EDIT16 – ICCU, Censimento nazionale delle edizioni italiane del XVI secolo, for the 1564 edition, its diffusion in Italian libraries and Comino da Trino’s publishing activity.
USTC – Universal Short Title Catalogue, University of St Andrews, international index of sixteenth-century European editions.
CERL – Consortium of European Research Libraries, Heritage of the Printed Book Database, for surveying copies and sixteenth-century editions of Filelfo’s works.
CERL Thesaurus – Francesco Filelfo; Comino da Trino / Cominus de Tridino Montisferrati, for authority forms, onomastic variants and typographic activity.
WorldCat – OCLC, international library catalog, for locating copies in major European and American libraries.
British Library, General Catalogue, for sixteenth-century editions of Francesco Filelfo and the Venetian production of the sixteenth century.