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 techniques of fencing.
La Pietra paragone de’ cavalieri is a masterpiece of late Italian Baroque that blends technical treatise, Marinist poetry, and noble culture, offering a unique glimpse into the equestrian world of the Kingdom of Naples. Divided into five books, the work covers riding, bridling, the variety of bits, complex riding-tracks (the “circoli seu torni”), and horse medicine. All 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 Dürer.
The text was celebrated from the outset by the public and found great favor among nobility, 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 the rich iconographic apparatus: the text is accompanied by numerous illustrations of riding traces, animals (including the rhinoceros [sic!] inspired by Dürer), portraits of illustrious Neapolitans in fencing of his time, both on horseback and half-bust, and an incredibly wide range of bridles. Huth p. 28. Brunet I, 159. Graesse I, 68.
A COPY ONLINE FOR EUR 25,000.00

WHY TO BUY
FIRST EDITION OF 1711 – Monumental Neapolitan treatise on riding, fencing and horse care, among the most ambitious Italian works dedicated to aristocratic culture.
EXCEPTIONAL ICONOGRAPHIC APPARATUS – Over 140 copper engravings illustrate bridles, riding exercises, horsemen, horse breeds, animals and protagonists of Neapolitan fencing.
GREATLY VALUED BINDING – Refined full leather richly decorated in gold, with gold-cut edges and engravings, giving the ejemplar a strong collectible presence.
RIDING, FENCING AND NEAPOLITAN BAROQUE – A unique work blending 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 half-title, portrait and title-page pristine, in addition to 140 engravings, all intact and well inked.
Physiological browning in the text, absolutely not obtrusive.
The 142 engravings, in addition to the title-page, are complete and well preserved.
Contemporary double guards (2 + 2) perfectly preserved, with an old manuscript exlibris on the recto of the first guard.
Decorated guard sheets on decorated paper originally. Fully gilt edges and dry-point engravings.
From pages 63 to 73, professional restoration with loss of some words in titles and text, no illustrations involved.
Extremely refined contemporary full-back leather binding, richly gilt. Six raised bands on the spine with title and decorations in gilt. Title-page depicting “two graceful and noble destriers” and the author’s portrait, both copper-engraved; title-page pristine, adorned with a large woodcut border.
Copy with white L2 paper correctly numbered 47 on the recto and 48 on the verso. Two leaves 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, an assembled 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, which alternates love sonnets and philosophically inspired pieces, verses 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 bestiary of Baroque poetry, the horse indeed represents a constant focal point, from the sonnets of Marino, Preti, Fontanella, Bruni to the late canzoniere of D'Alessandro, who welcomes and proposes poetic forms and themes close to a taste near the end.
The author belongs to the cadre of Marinist epigones, who push the poetical elements of the bizarre, the extravagant, and the peregrine to their furthest consequences, exaggerating tones and situations of early Baroque. He does not simply admire the quick and fiery movement of the “flying racehorse” (cf. Ad Un Cavallo), but also dedicates odes and hymns to the saddle, stirrup, and spur. Fascinated especially by the animal’s dynamism, impetuous and prancing, he pairs conventional metaphors of the “wind with mane” with the bold contrast “earthly flier” (cf. Ad un velocissimo e nobile cavallo) to portray the unstoppable rush of the horse in full gallop.
Furthermore, in keeping with late Baroque taste, there is the emphatic assertion that D'Alessandro makes toward the end of the sonnet to his beloved horse: “For you my pages acquire honor” and the extended final metaphor: “Your back is nothing but a throne / for heroes crowned and demigods.” Alongside pieces inspired by an incredible equine innology, there are also some amorous sonnets that vary the usual themes of seventeenth-century erotic lyric with a series celebrating a beautiful woman on a horse, a horse restrained by a beautiful woman, and similar motifs, but they feature banal wordplay: “Moro per donna mora” (cf. For a dark-haired woman) where the elaborate phrases of conceptual language are reduced to stereotyped formulas.

Giuseppe D'Alessandro was born in 1656 in Pescolanciano (Campobasso province), in the “citeriore Aprutio,” to Duke Fabio and Isabella Amendola. Following the premature death of his brother, he became the third duke and seventh baron of the feudal holdings of Pescolanciano, Carovilli, Castiglione, Pietrabbondante, Civitanova, Civitavecchia. To these domains were added the towns of Roccaraso, Castelgiudice and Roccacinquemila, brought as dowry by D.'s wife, Baroness A. M. Marchesani, of Salerno origin.