D'Alessandro - Paragone de' Cavalieri - 1711

ONE OF THE RAREST AND MOST IMPORTANT WORKS ON RIDING - IN FOLIO - RICHLY ILLUSTRATED
First edition of this very important work on riding, horse care, history and the science of fencing.
La Pietra paragone de’ cavalieri is a masterpiece of late Italian Baroque that fuses technical treatise, Marinist poetry, and knightly culture, offering a unique view of the equestrian world of the Kingdom of Naples. Divided into five books, the work discusses riding, harnessing, the variety of bits, the complex riding diagrams (the “circoli seu torni”) and horse medicine. All of this is accompanied by an imposing iconographic apparatus: 140 full-page copper engravings, including portraits of Neapolitan fencers, marks of horse breeds, allegorical figures, and even a rhinoceros inspired by Durero.
The text was celebrated from the start by the public and enjoyed great success among nobles, fencers and scholars of veterinary sciences.
Cf. Bibl. generale della scherma, 59-60; Brunet I, 159; D'Afflitto, 212, the work “was received by the public more with applause,” also for its rich iconographic apparatus: it is accompanied by numerous illustrations of riding traces, animals (including the rhinoceros [sic!] inspired by Durero), portraits of illustrious Neapolitan figures in fencing of his time, both on horseback and in half-bust, and an incredibly broad array of bits. Huth p. 28. Brunet I, 159. Graesse I, 68.
ONE COPY AVAILABLE ONLINE AT EUR 25,000.00

WHY TO BUY
FIRST EDITION OF 1711 – Monumental Neapolitan treatise on riding, fencing and horse care, among the Italian works most ambitious in the knightly culture.
EXCEPTIONAL ICONOGRAPHIC APPARATUS – Over 140 copper engravings illustrate bits, riding exercises, cavaliers, horse breeds, animals and protagonists of Neapolitan fencing.
GREAT-QUALITY BINDING – Refined full leather richly decorated in gold, with gilded edges and engravings, giving the specimen a strong collecting presence.
RIDING, FENCING AND NEAPOLITAN BAROQUE – A unique work that blends equestrian technique, veterinary science, Marinist poetry and aristocratic culture of the Kingdom of Naples.

CONDITION REPORT
In-folio (mm 355x225). Paper generally very well preserved, including flyleaves, portrait and title page intact, in addition to 140 engravings, all intact and inked properly.
Physiological browning in the text, absolutely not obtrusive.
The 142 engravings, besides the title page, are complete and well preserved.
Contemporary endpapers (2 + 2) perfectly preserved, with a handwritten old ex-libris on the recto of the first endpaper.
Counter-plates on decorated paper originally. Entirely gold-edged and with dry stamping.
From pages 63 to 73, professional restoration with loss of some words from titles and text, no illustrations involved.
Extremely refined contemporary full leather binding, richly decorated in gold. Spine with 6 raised bands, title and decorations in gold. Title page in disguise depicting “two graceful and noble chargers” and author’s portrait, both copper-engraved; title page clean, adorned with a large woodcut frieze.
Example with white L2 paper correctly numbered 47 on the recto and 48 on the verso. Two leaves of plates between pages 342 and 345, editorially numbered as pages (343-344).
Errata p. (5)-((6) on the opposite. Pp. 12nn. 402; (4).

FULL TITLES & AUTHORS
Pietra paragone de' cavalieri, [. ] divided into five books.
In Naples, Domenico-Antonio Parrino, 1711
Giuseppe D'Alessandro

CONTENTS
In 1711, Giuseppe D'Alessandro, published in Naples the Pietra paragone de' cavalieri, a composed work that includes sonnets, letters and treatises of various kinds. The idolized image of the horse, center of a singular equestrian microcosm, constitutes the coordinating element of the collection that alternates, to the amorous and philosophically inspired sonnets, rhymes extolling the glories and virtues of noble quadrupeds, treatises on how to care for their “infirmities,” and even engravings of the most prized breed marks in the Kingdom of Naples. In the colorful menagerie of Baroque lyric poetry, the horse represents a constant focal point, from the sonnets of Marino, Preti, Fontanella, Bruni to the later D' Alessandro hymnbook, which welcomes and offers models and themes of a poetic taste close to the end.

The author belongs to the ranks of the epigones of Marinism, who push the poetry of the bizarre, the extravagant, the peregrine to extreme consequences, intensifying tones and situations of early Baroque. He does not merely admire the swift and fiery stride of the “flying corsair” (see Ad un cavallo), but also dedicates odes and hymns to the saddle, the stirrup, the spur. Fascinated, above all, by the animal’s dynamism, impetuous and prancing, he combines conventional metaphors of the type “wind-maned” with the bold contrast “earthly flyer” (see Ad un velocissimo e nobile cavallo) to portray the unstoppable momentum of the horse in full gallop.

Furthermore consonant with the late Baroque taste is the emphatic assertion toward the end of the sonnet that D'Alessandro directs to the beloved horse: “For you my sheets acquire honor” and the extended concluding metaphor: “Your back is nothing but a throne / for crowned heroes and demigods.” Alongside pieces inspired by incredible equine lore, there are some amorous sonnets that vary the usual themes of seventeenth-century erotic lyric with a celebratory sequence of the beautiful woman on horseback, of the horse restrained by a beautiful woman, and the like, but they present banal wordplay: “Moro per donna mora” (see Per una donna mora) where the elaborate locutions of conceptual poetry are reduced to stereotyped formulas.

Giuseppe D'Alessandro was born in 1656 in Pescolanciano (province of Campobasso), in the ‘citeriore Aprutio,’ to the duke Fabio and Isabella Amendola. Following the early death of his brother, he became the third duke and seventh baron of the feuds of Pescolanciano, Carovilli, Castiglione, Pietrabbondante, Civitanova, Civitavecchia. To these domains were added the towns of Roccaraso, Castelguidice and Roccacinquemila, brought as a dowry by D.'s wife, the baroness A. M. Marchesani, of Salerno origin.