Durandi - Antico Stato d’Italia - 1772

ITALY BEFORE ROME: PEOPLES, MIGRATIONS AND ANCIENT GEOGRAPHY REVISITED IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
ABSTRACT
Published in Turin in 1772, Jacopo Durandi’s Ragionamento addresses the problem of the origins and settlement of ancient Italy. The author critically discusses Stanislao Bardetti’s work on the first inhabitants of the peninsula, comparing classical testimonies, historical traditions, toponymy, and geography. Particular attention is given to Celts, Ligurians, Etruscans, Umbrians, Iberians, and the other peoples of pre-Roman Italy. The work is completed by an important section of geographic research on ancient Gaul. An especially agreeable and genuine specimen, preserved in barbes.

WHY TO BUY
HISTORY OF PRE-ROMAN ITALY – An interesting seventeenth-century contribution to the erudite debate on the origins and migrations of Italic peoples.
HISTORIOGRAPHIC POLEMICS – Durandi subjects the theses of Stanislao Bardetti to critical examination, placing himself directly in the contemporary debate on the ancient settlement of the peninsula.
GEOGRAPHY OF GAUL – In addition to the research on Italy, a specific section is devoted to the geography of ancient Gaul.
GENUINE SPECIMEN IN BARBES – The preservation of untrimmed margins gives the specimen a particularly genuine and desirable collectible character.

MARKET VALUE
The title is not of absolute rarity, but holds interest for Italian history, antiquarian archaeology, historical ethnography, and seventeenth-century studies. This specimen, thanks to its barbes and its genuineness, can reasonably be valued in the €350–550 range.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporary or near-contemporary binding in rustic decorated carton, spine with raised bands and visible stitching. Specimen in barbes, with wide and irregular margins, untrimmed. Signs of use, small defects and wear to the binding; pages with some stains and signs of time. In old books, with a multisection history, some imperfections may be present, not always evident in the description. This listing contains AI Views. Refer to the original photographs to verify the object’s actual condition. Images are an integral part of the description. Pp. (2); 4nn; 256; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Dell’antico stato d’Italia.
In Turin, 1772. Appresso Onorato Derossi.
Jacopo Durandi.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The work belongs to the eighteenth-century period in which historical erudition, philology, geography, and the study of classical sources were used to reconstruct the pre-Roman past of the peninsula. Durandi takes a stance in the debate on the origin of the ancient peoples of Italy and, in particular, discusses the theses advanced by Father Stanislao Bardetti. The content is far more specific than the abbreviated title Dell’antico stato d’Italia might suggest: it is not a general history of the Italian State, but an inquiry into the first inhabitants of the peninsula, the migrations, and the identities of Celts, Ligurians, Etruscans, Umbrians, and other peoples, completed by research on ancient Gaul. The University Library of Genoa indeed describes the volume as a “treatise on the ancient Italic peoples” and explicitly places it in the contemporary debate on the ancient settlement of Italy.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Jacopo Durandi (Santhià, 1739 – Turin, 1817) was a Piedmontese jurist, historian, and dramatic author. He also held the position of president of the Real Corte dei Conti of Turin. After an early literary activity, he devoted himself largely to historical and antiquarian research, with particular interest in pre-Roman Italy and ancient Piedmont. His works include the Essay on the History of the Ancient Italic Peoples (1769), Dell’antico stato d’Italia (1772), and subsequent studies on ancient Piedmont.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The edition was published in Turin in 1772 by bookseller Onorato Derossi. Bibliographic sources record the volume as the Turin edition of 1772 and confirm a length of 255 pages, in addition to preliminaries and finals. The work follows a few years after Durandi’s Saggio sulla storia degli antichi popoli d’Italia, published in 1769, and also serves as a critical response to the fortunes encountered by Bardetti’s theories. The University Library of Genoa expressly highlights this polemical relationship and the author’s intention to reaffirm, through the Ragionamento, his own historiographical positions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Archivio di Stato di Torino, bibliographic catalog: Durandi, Dell’antico Stato d’Italia, Turin, Onorato Derossi, 1772.

Biblioteca Universitaria di Genova, Antiquaria Collection catalog, no. 212: Durandi, Dell’antico stato d’Italia, Turin, Derossi, 1772; 255 pp.; 8°.
Librinlinea – Piedmont SBN hub, Jacopo Durandi, Dell’antico stato d’Italia, Turin, Onorato Derossi, 1772.

NUC, vol. 152, p. 558.

Catalogo metodico della Biblioteca storico-artistica Vico unita alla Comunale romana Sarti, entry Jacopo Durandi.

SBN – Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale, Italian collective catalog.

WorldCat, international bibliographic catalog.

OPAC SBN / ICCU, indexes of eighteenth-century Italian editions.