Ovidio / Dolce - Le Trasformationi - 1553

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THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID IN ENGLISH OTAVA RHYME – CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY IN THE GREAT ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED RENAISSANCE RETELLINGS OF OVID
Important Giolito edition of 1553 of Lodovico Dolce’s Transformations, published in Venice in the same year as the first complete impression of the work. The title page explicitly states this new print run «newly reprinted, and corrected by him, and expanded in various places», distinguishing it from the first Giolito edition issued shortly before. Dolce transforms the Metamorphoses of Ovid into a vast Italian poem in ottava rima, conceived not as a mere literal translation but as a refined rewriting intended for the educated Renaissance audience. The work is one of the major examples of Ovid’s fortune in the sixteenth century and contributed to spreading in the vernacular the immense repertoire of myths, gods, heroes and metamorphoses that fed European literature and the visual arts for centuries. Of great charm is the Giolito editorial apparatus, with a rich illustrated title page, numerous narrative woodcuts, decorative spandrels and historiated initials. The present exemplar preserves the extensive illustrative corpus and is housed in an ancient full-leather binding within an elegant case.

WHY TO BUY
GIOLITO – VENICE 1553! One of the great illustrated editions of Venetian Renaissance.
OVIDI in OTAVA RHYME! The famous and highly successful Italian rewrite by Lodovico Dolce.
MYTHOLOGY IN IMAGES! A rich cycle of woodcuts accompanies gods, heroes and metamorphoses.
SECOND EDITION OF 1553, CORRECTED AND EXPANDED! The rare impression «newly reprinted» immediately following the first Giolito.

MARKET VALUE
The sixteenth-century illustrated editions of Dolce’s Transformations continue to hold strong interest for collectors of Ovid, Italian literature, mythology and Venetian typography. The second Giolito edition of 1553 is bibliographically well distinguished and sought after, especially when it preserves the woodcut apparatus. A complete and well-preserved specimen can be valued in a retail range of €1,000–3,000.

PHYSICAL / CONDITION
Pp. (2), 16 nn., 310, 10 nn., (2). Large illustrated title page within an elaborate woodcut border, numerous narrative woodcuts in the text, typographic ornaments and historiated initials. Ancient full brown leather binding, back with raised bands and decorated compartments and a parchment manuscript tag; deckle edges. Conserved within an elegant case from a later period. Missing leaf f6, replaced by an accurate facsimile. Small loss at the lower cap, darkened spine, some foxing, wear and normal signs of aging. As with all old volumes, minor defects or restorations not expressly mentioned may be present.

FULL TITLES & AUTHORS
Lodovico Dolce (1508-1568).
Le Trasformationi di M. Lodovico Dolce, di nuovo ristampate, e da lui ricorrette, et in diversi luoghi ampliate. Con la Tavola delle Favole.
In Venetia: appresso Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari e fratelli, 1553.
SECOND EDITION GIOLITO OF 1553.
Rewriting in ottava rima of the Metamorphoses of Ovid.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Lodovico Dolce (Venice, 1508-1568) was one of the most prolific and versatile men of letters of the Venetian Renaissance: poet, translator, dramatist, art theorist, editorial corrector and stable collaborator of the Giolito press. His activity was decisive in disseminating in the vernacular the great texts of classical and Italian tradition. He curated or reworked works by Boccaccio, Petrarch, Dante, Ariosto and numerous ancient and modern authors, addressing an audience far broader than that of the humanist specialists. The Transformations of 1553 represent one of the most famous results of this activity. Dolce does not proceed with a strictly literal translation of Ovid, but recreates the Latin poem through the Italian narrative ottava, adapting classical mythology to the literary taste of the full sixteenth century. The work thus belongs fully to the Venetian editorial culture, in which translation, rewriting and illustration worked together to build a new audience for the classics.

RARITY
The 1553 saw two Giolito impressions of the Transformations in quick succession: the first complete edition and, shortly after, the present second edition, expressly defined as «newly reprinted», corrected and expanded by the author. This circumstance testifies to the immediate success of the work and makes it bibliographically important to distinguish the two print runs. The second Giolito is catalogued by the main sixteenth-century repertoires and has been described in important international antique catalogues. Specimens with the rich figurative apparatus retain particular interest because the woodcuts are an essential part of the editorial project and of the iconographic fortune of the work.

HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE
The Metamorphoses of Ovid were one of the main sources of mythology for Renaissance and Baroque Europe. Dolce’s rewriting helped transfer this enormous heritage from Latin culture to the Italian vernacular, making accessible to a broader audience the stories of Apollo and Daphne, Narcissus, Phaethon, Orpheus, Perseus and the innumerable characters of the Ovidian universe. The work was composed directly within the Giolito editorial environment and enjoyed rapid fortune, with numerous subsequent reprints. The rich woodcut apparatus reinforces this cultural function: text and image work together to visually fix the myth, making the Transformations not only a literary work but also an important iconographic repertoire of the Italian Renaissance.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
USTC 845803.
EDIT16, CNCE 54429.
Adams, Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe, O-508.
Mortimer, Harvard College Library, Italian Sixteenth-Century Books, n. 342.
Brunet, Manuel du libraire et de l’amateur de livres, II, 789.
G. A. Pettas, The Giolito Press.
Lodovico Dolce, Le Trasformationi, Venezia, Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1553.
Repertori e studi dedicati alla fortuna rinascimentale delle Metamorfosi di Ovidio e alla produzione editoriale dei Giolito.