Beschreibung:

Collection of Italian verse, including a sonnet of Petrarch and erotic and scandalous poetry attributed in the sixteenth century to Pietro Aretino, manuscript on paper [Italy, late sixteenth century] 40 leaves (plus a modern endleaf at each end and an original endleaf at front), complete, catchwords, contemporary pagination, verse in a rounded Italian italic hand, capitals often set off in margin, some of these touched in red, last leaves reattached to volume with paper guards, some spots and stains, overall good condition, 200 by 135mm.; nineteenth-century white parchment over pasteboards, boards slightly bowed Provenance: 1. Written in the late sixteenth century for, and perhaps by, one Aegidius, who signs the first leaf and records the attribution of the verse to Aretino. 2. A. Cafarelli: his early twentieth-century red oval bookplate on front pastedown. Perhaps passing from him to the Milan bookseller Il Polifilo (founded 1941): their sticker below bookplate. Text: This volume opens with a lengthy bawdy verse attributed to the notoriously profane poet Pietro Aretino (1492-1556; here p. 1 onwards), who counted two Popes, an emperor, the king of France, a Medici and a Gonzaga among his regular patrons, was equally famous for his wit and malice, and in later life used his own homosexuality to blackmail those who sought his advice or protection. Much of the rest of the volume continues with an erotic theme (see p. 39 and the discussion of "buffetti peni" on p. 42). It ends with Petrarch's sonetto 230, here opening "Rotta e salta colonna il verde lauro ...". To view a video of this item, click here.