ARIOSTO, BERNI - Satirici e burleschi del secolo XVI - 1787

Parnaso Italiano

ARiOSTO, BERNI,
SATIRISTS AND BURLESQUES OF THE 16th CENTURY
Parnaso Italiano, or Collection of the Italian classical poets… Volume XXVII
Venice, at Antonio Zatta e Figli, 1787

Pp. (8), 280. In-8° (about 17 cm).
Contemporary binding in half-leather with parchment boards, spine with cords and a black leather inlay and the title gold-stamped “PARNASO ITALIANO 27”, ornaments and gold lines. Marble-edged pages.

Frontispiece with a copper-engraved medallion (allegory of Apollo and Italy) and numerous fine vignettes, headers and trailing pieces engraved in copper by Cristoforo Dall’Acqua (and collaborators of the Venetian workshop), illustrating the individual pieces.

Contents
Volume 27 of the famous Parnaso Italiano series (56 volumes, roughly 1784-1791), edited by Andrea Rubbi. A collection of satirical and burlesque poems of the 16th century, with the following authors:
• Ludovico Ariosto
• Ercole Bentivoglio
• Luigi Alamanni
• Antonio Vinciguerra
• Giovanni Andrea dall’Anguillara
• Giovanni Mauro d’Arcano
• Bernardino Giambullari
• Francesco Berni
• Francesco Coppetta
• Giovanni della Casa
• Ludovico Dolce
• Annibal Caro
• Agnolo Firenzuola
• Mattio Franzesi
• Cesare Caporali
• Pietro Aretino
• Cristofano Bronzino
• Antonfrancesco Grazzini (il Lasca)
• Giovanni Gelsi
and others. At the end: Notizie de’ Poeti e Registro de’ Rami.

Importance and rarity
The Zatta Parnaso Italiano is regarded as one of the most beautiful and complete eighteenth-century anthologies of classical Italian poets, appreciated both for its typographic clarity and for its rich illustrative apparatus (hundreds of copper engravings forming a true “sampling” of late eighteenth-century Venetian copper-engraving art).
This volume, specifically dedicated to the satirists and burlesques of the Cinquecento, is especially sought after because it gathers the major figures of the genre (Berni, Aretino, Ariosto in satire, Lasca, Firenzuola, etc.), offering a fundamental panorama of Renaissance playful and satirical poetry.

Individual copies of this series are increasingly rare on the market, especially in contemporary bindings and with engravings in good condition. The complete series is currently difficult to find and of considerable collectible value.

Copy in generally good preservation condition, with typical signs of use of the time (binding wear, head caps, some stains and foxing, but complete and solid).

Ideal volume for collectors of Italian literature of the Cinquecento, of illustrated Venetian editions and eighteenth-century bindings.