M. Gio. Battista Modio - Il Convito, overo del peso della moglie - 1558

guard card, 1 white card, 40, 1 white card, guard card

19th-century binding in full green Moroccan leather, with a gold-embossed star border on the covers, a spine divided into five sections with floral friezes and gold titles within a red panel, marbled endpapers, and corner decorations with gold motifs ex-libris on the front pastedown.

Second edition. The first appeared in 1554. A dialogue set in Rome during the carnival of that same year. The conversation serves as a framing device for a convivial gathering, during which the topic of 'horns' is discussed according to the rules set by the 'king of the banquet', the young bishop of Piacenza, Catalano Tribulzi. The participants in the dialogue and the gathering, besides Modio and Trivulzi, include L. Gambara, G. Marmitta, T. Benci, literary figures linked to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese and key players in the Roman cultural scene. The precedents of the text are sixteenth-century dialogues dedicated to love, women, and the appropriateness or not of marriage, all combined with satirical and burlesque traditions about 'horns'.

Publisher's mark of the De Meda brothers on the frontispiece and colophon, depicting a woman leaning against a column with an apple and a serpent, surrounded by the motto: 'Neque vi neque dolo,' various headpieces, dedication 'To the Most Illustrious and Reverend Lord, Monsignor Innocentio Card. di Monte.' The work is in good condition. Complete and usable.

Rare.