De Gli Hecatommithi Giraldi Cinzio, Giovanni Battista (1504-1573)

SHAKESPEARE'S SOURCES FOR OTHELLO AND MEASURE FOR MEASURETwo volumes, 8vo (162x98 mm). I: 14, [18], 1-199, [5], 201-326, [6], 329-486, [6], 489-623, [5], 625-751, [5], 753-902, [2] pp. Collation: [?]a8 *8 a-m8 n4 12 o-x8 22 y-hh8 32 ii-qq8 rr4 42 ss-bbb8 52 ccc-lll8 mmm4. Leaves *8, x8, 2/2, and hh8 are blank; II: [12], 1-63, [5], 65-208 pp., 209-224 leaves, [4], 217-317, [7], 321-368, [4], 369-490, [2], 493-623, [5], 625-798, [2], 799-820, [2], 821-822, [96] pp. Collation:**8 ***4 A-D8 [?]E2 E-P8 62 [?]P8 Q-V8 X4 72 Y-Aa8 82 Bb-Hh8 Ii4 Kk2 Ll-Ss8 Tt2 102 Vv8 X8 Yy-Ggg8 Hhh8 Iii4 a-e8 *8. Leaves *8 , ***4, 6/2, X4, Ggg8, and Iii4 are blank. Complete with all 10 blank leaves. With the printer's device on both title pages accompanied by the author's portrait on the verso of each. Bound in uniform full olive morocco tooled in gilt by J. Leight, aeg., marbled pastedowns with gilt dentelles. Some dedication leaves in the second volume extended, upper and outer margin occasionally cut short (on a few pages slightly touching the sidenotes), some occasional marginal staining and foxing, pages skillfully washed and pressed, some marginal paper repairs not affecting the text. A good copy.First edition, first issue, of this famous collection of tales. Divided into two parts, the Hecatommithi consists of one hundred and thirteen novellas organized across ten days, as well as poetic compositions, letters, dedications, and the Tre dialoghi dell'allevare et ammaestrare i figliuoli nella vita civile (?Three Dialogues on Raising and Teaching Children in Civic Life'), written by Giraldi around 1550 and inserted into the middle of the collection, between the fifth and sixth days.Giraldi began writing his novelle between 1527 and 1531. After a hiatus of nearly thirty years, he resumed his work when Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy, to whom the work is dedicated, called him to teach at the Mondovì University. An instant success, the work was reprinted numerous times until the end of the century and enjoyed broad dissemination across Spain, France, Germany, and England.The year following the editio princeps, Giraldi published a new version at the presses of Girolamo Scotto (Venice, 1566), wherein, however, the final poem and the indexes are absent. Subsequent editions were also published in Venice, all posthumously: those by Enea de Alaris (1574), Fabio and Agostino Zoppini (1580 and 1584), Domenico Imberti, (1593) and Evangelista Deuchino (1608). To these must then be added French, Spanish, and German translations as well as numerous syllogies and imitations which appeared throughout Europe. However, none of these editions entirely adhere to the original structure conceived by Giraldi for the first edition of 1565: the Tre Dialoghi, in particular, are published separately from the corpus of the work, and almost all the paratexts surrounding the novellas are eliminated. After 1608, for over two centuries, Giraldi's novelle knew no other edition, possibly due in part to the Inquisition's prohibition, which placed the book on the Index of 1580.Shakespeare's Othello derives from Giraldi's story of the ?Moor of Venice? (cf. C. Azzolini, Giraldi, Chappuis e Shakespeare: la fonte e il testo dell' ?Othello?, in: ?Schifanoia?, 12, 1991, pp. 222-227), while novella 5, decade 8, is the source for the bard's Measure for Measure (cf. C. Roberts, The Politics of Persuasion: ?Measure for Measure? and Cinthio's ?Hecatommithi?, in: ?Early Modern Literary Studies?, 7/3, (2002), pp. 1-17). Shakespeare presumably read Giraldi's Hecatommithi, as well as Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, in the original Italian version. ?The source for Othello is Giraldi Cinthio's Hecatommithi. As the same collection contains a version of the story which provided the plot of Measure for Measure, and as that play written about the same time as Othello, Shakespeare was presumably scanning Cinthio's book in his search for plots in the early years of the 17th century [?] In reading Cinthio's t