S. Bardetti - De' Primi Abitatori dell'Italia - 1769

DE’ PRIMI ABITATORI DELL’ITALIA

Posthumous work by Father Stanislao Bardetti of the Society of Jesus, theologian to His Serene Highness the Duke of Modena. Part One and Part Two.
Modena, At the printing house of Giovanni Montanari, 1769.

Two folio volumes (305 × 230 mm when bound).
Pp. (12), 251; (2), 255-471.

Important and rare posthumous work by the Modenese Jesuit Stanislao Bardetti (1714-1768), court theologian to the Duke of Modena, dedicated to the study of the oldest populations of Italy (Ligurians, Umbrians, Taurisci and other circumpadanian peoples) through an extensive examination of classical, mythological, and historical sources. The work, printed in Modena the year following the author’s death, represents one of the most serious eighteenth-century attempts to reconstruct the pre-Roman origins of the peninsula and fits into the vein of Italian antiquarian and historical scholarship of the high Enlightenment.

Complete copy of the text, but lacking the author’s portrait and the plate of medals. Contemporary rustic binding in worn gray paper with a yellow ribbon, stained but solid. Inside, occasional foxing and damp stains (as in the photo). Present is an old ownership signature.

A work of notable rarity on the market, particularly sought after by scholars of ancient history, antiquarianism, and the history of eighteenth-century culture.