Loredano - Bizzarrie Academiche - 1648

TALE OF THE ACADEMIC BIZARITIES; DEATH OF VOLESTAIN
ABSTRACT
Rare sixteenth-century edition of the Bizzarrie accademiche by Giovanni Francesco Loredano, one of the most representative works of the culture of the Accademia degli Incogniti. The collection gathers discourses, tales, and compositions of a moral, amorous, erudite, and paradoxical character, built according to the witty and provocative taste of the Venetian scholarly culture of the Seicento. The volume also includes the Death of Volestain, inserted in the collection as an additional composition by Loredano. The copy preserves the beautiful copper-engraved frontispiece by Giacomo Pecini after a drawing by Francesco Ruschi, as well as initials, headpieces, and tailpieces carved in wood. The 1647–1648 edition is one of the expanded versions of the collection, much richer than the first Venetian edition of 1638.

WHY TO BUY
EXPANDED EDITION – Important Seicento edition of the Bizzarrie academiche, significantly expanded compared with the first edition of 1638.
LOREDANO AND THE INCogniti – Work directly tied to Giovanni Francesco Loredano, founder in 1630 of the Accademia degli Incogniti and a central figure of Venetian literary culture in the Seicento.
CUP FRONTISPIECE – The copy preserves the refined frontispiece engraved in copper by Giacomo Pecini after a drawing by Francesco Ruschi, a characteristic feature of the expanded editions of the collection.
VENETIAN CULTURE OF THE SEICENTO – A significant collection for documenting the academic, satirical, amorous, and erudite taste of Baroque Venice and the Incogniti’s publishing activity.

MARKET VALUE
For a complete copy of only the first part, bound in contemporaneous parchment with original frontispiece, a rough market range can be placed around €350–400, with higher values possible for particularly fresh, complete copies with significant provenance.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporary parchment rigid binding, with manuscript title on the spine, showing signs of use, abrasions, and staining to the parchment. Frontispiece figure engraved in copper by Giacomo Pecini after a drawing by Francesco Ruschi; headpieces, initials, and tailpieces woodcut. Pages with physiological browning, some stains and signs of use. This listing contains AI Visuals. Refer to the original photographs to verify the object’s actual conditions. The images are an integral part of the description. In old books with a centuries-long history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp.: (2); 308; 2nn; (2); 24nn; 312; (2).

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Bizzarrie Academiche.
In Venetia, Ad istanza dell’Accademia, 1648.
Giovanni Francesco Loredano (Venice, 1607 – Peschiera, 1661), Venetian patrician, writer and founder of the Accademia degli Incogniti.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The Bizzarrie academiche constitute one of the principal testimonies of Loredano’s scholarly production and of the Incogniti milieu. The collection springs from the Academy’s particular taste for paradoxical discourses, amorous questions, morality, mythology, erudition, and ironic observation of customs. The texts were conceived also for performance and discussion in an academic setting, giving them a marked dialogic and theatrical dimension. The first part appeared in 1638; the second was published in 1646, and the subsequent editions progressively expanded the collection with new compositions.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Giovanni Francesco Loredano was born in Venice on 27 February 1607 to a patrician family. He received a legal, philosophical, and literary education and frequented the Padua cultural milieu. In 1630 he founded the Accademia degli Incogniti, which would become one of the most important centers of Venetian literary culture in the Seicento. Alongside his literary production he pursued a long political career in the Republic of Venice, holding numerous magistracies up to the Council of Ten and the Minor Council. He was the author of novels, novellas, letters, historical works, scholarly texts, and poetic compositions. He died in Peschiera on 13 August 1661.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The Bizzarrie academiche first appeared in Venice in 1638 at Giacomo Sarzina. The second part was published separately in 1646 by Francesco Valvasense. The edition represented here belongs to the expanded phase of 1647–1648: the first part bears the date 1648 and the formula “In Venetia, Ad istanza dell’Accademia,” while the second part bears the imprint of Francesco Valvasense. The collection underwent numerous reprintings throughout the Seicento, testimony to the work’s fortune and Loredano’s notoriety.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
Vinciana, Autori italiani del Seicento, no. 3433; Menegatti, Ex ignoto notus? Bibliografia delle opere a stampa del principe degli Incogniti: Giovan Francesco Loredano, Padua, 2000; Clizia Carminati, “Loredan, Giovan Francesco,” Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, vol. 65, Treccani, 2005; Monica Miato, L’Accademia degli Incogniti di Giovan Francesco Loredano, Venice (1630-1661), Florence, Olschki, 1998; ICCU/SBN catalogs, EDIT16, CERL, USTC and WorldCat. The author’s bibliography and the history of the Accademia degli Incogniti are extensively documented in modern studies on Loredano and on Venetian publishing of the Seicento.