Description:
12mo (140x83 mm). [6], 166, [2] leaves. Collation: a6 A-O12. The leaf O12 is a blank. Contemporary vellum, spine with gilt title on label (stain on the back panel). Ownership entries of a certain Luigi Bernini. Wormhole in the last 3 leaves with loss of text, two small emblems stamped on the title page, a bit browned, but genuine.FIRST EDITION, second issue, of the first draft of the Secchia rapita, the most successful mock-heroic poem of Italian literature. Composed between 1614 and 1618, the work first circulated in manuscript form, immediately attracting the attention of the Inquisition. After several (sometimes illegal) attempts to have it printed in Modena and Padua, Tassoni was forced to go to France to avoid ecclesiastical censure. It was through the efforts of Jean Chapelain, a friend and collaborator of G.B. Marino, that Tassoni's poem was eventually printed in Paris in late 1621. Of this first Paris edition three issues are known. Almost at the same time, a counterfeit, probably printed in… Read More