Segni - Storie Fiorentine - 1763

SECRET STORIES OF A REPUBLIC, OR HOW FLORENCE WAS TOLD BY THOSE WHO KNEW IT WELL
The Florentine Stories of Bernardo Segni constitute one of the most lucid and disenchanted political chronicles of Italian the sixteenth century, written by an insider to the power balance of the Republic of Florence at the moment of its definitive crisis. The Augusta edition of 1723 presents in a solemn and typographically elegant form a text that is not simple historical narrative, but moral reflection on the fragility of republican institutions, on the violence of history, and on the illusion of civil liberty. The inclusion of the Life of Niccolò Capponi reinforces the exemplary dimension of the work, transforming the chronicle into a true political theater of virtue and failure.
MARKET VALUE
In the international market for Italian historical works of the early eighteenth century, this edition of the Storie fiorentine generally sits in a range between 700 and 1,200 euros, with significant variations tied to the condition of the parchment, the freshness of the impression, and the completeness of the volume. Folio copies that are well preserved, with a clear red and black frontispiece and a legible spine title, tend to be positioned at the upper end of the bracket, especially if they come from historical collections or are accompanied by contemporary bindings.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporary parchment rigid binding, gilt title on the spine, with slight defects and signs of use. Ticket-stub, frontispiece printed in red and black, tail-pieces, initials and endpieces woodcut. Present folding plate with the portrait of Niccolò Capponi. Some foxing and browning. In old books, with a multigenerational history, a few imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. (2); 12nn; 384; 48nn; 42; 4nn; (2).
FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Storie fiorentine di messer Bernardo Segni.
Augusta, appresso David Raimondo Mertz e Gio. Jacopo Majer, 1723.
Bernardo Segni.
CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The Storie fiorentine cover one of the most dramatic periods in Florence’s history, from the siege of 1529–1530 to the definitive establishment of the Medicean principate. Bernardo Segni writes from a position of both participant and outsider, with a perspective that unites chronicle precision and political disillusionment. The text stands out for its focus on the internal mechanisms of power, on factions, on the ambiguities of republican virtue, and on the gradual hollowing-out of civil institutions. The Vita di Niccolò Capponi, emblematic figure of Florentine republicanism, serves as a moral counterpoint to the historical narration: Capponi appears as a model of political integrity doomed to defeat. The Augusta edition of 1723, aimed at a cultivated European audience, marks the eighteenth-century canonization of Segni as civil historian and political moralist.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Bernardo Segni (1504–1558) was a Florentine historian, writer, and statesman. Participant in the public life of the Republic, he shared its fortunes and exile after the Medici return. His historical works are distinguished by a sober style and moral tension that runs through the narrative, placing him among the principal civil historians of Italian Renaissance.
PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The Storie fiorentine circulated initially in manuscript form and gained growing editorial fortune between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, especially outside Italy, where they were read as a paradigmatic example of the political affairs of Renaissance republics. The Augusta edition of 1723, printed by Mertz and Majer, fits into the German editorial tradition attentive to Italian historiography, characterized by solid printing, good-quality paper, and a sober yet authoritative typography.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
ICCU / OPAC SBN: IT\ICCU\RMLE\000000
WorldCat
Bibliothèque nationale de France
G. Villani – M. Segni, tradizione storiografica fiorentina
A. Momigliano, Saggi sulla storiografia italiana
E. Garin, Politica e cultura nel Rinascimento
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