With:Partenio, Bernardino. Della Imitatione Poetica. Venice, G. Giolito de' Ferrari 1560. 4to. [xvi], 248, [3]p. Scattered Greek, fine historiated woodcut initials. Ad I-II: First Editions of two significant contributions to the 16th-century questione della lingua, the debate over the codification of the Italian literary language. Their tenets influenced all subsequent Italian poetry. Both volumes are in good condition (light stains on a dozen leaves, second title soiled); 1578 ownership inscription of Galeotto Bernardini - perhaps the protonotary apostolic who died in 1591. Ad I: Daniello's Poetic, is among the earliest examples of a modern Italian treatise on poetry. It is cast as a dialog and set in the villa of a friend and collaborator of Bembo, the Padua humanist Trifone Gabriel. Daniello discusses with Gabriel's nephews the nature of poetry and its role in society. The poet must aim to at once teach and delight. Drawing on Italian vernacular verse (mostly Petrarch), Daniello treats word choice, syntax, rhetorical figures and prosody. Ad II: Spanning Latin and Italian, poetry and prose, Partenio builds on Aristotle and Horace to illustrate the concept of literary imitation and provides an impressive catalog of stylistic examples from ancient and contemporary authors - Virgil, Cicero, Catullus, Tibullus, Lucretius, Petrarch, Dante, Boccaccio, Bembo, Pontano, Sannazaro. The book is also in dialog form, and the printer paolo manuzio is one of the interlocutors. Ad I: Gamba, Serie dei testi di lingua 1341; Weinberg, A History of Literary Criticism in the Italian Renaissance 721-24; Spingarn, A History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance 13, 19, 30-31, 38-9, 52, 68 & 85; EDIT 16 CNCE 15989. Ad II: Bongi, Annali di Gabriel Giolito de' Ferrari II: 83-4; Weinberg 145-7; Spingarn 80, 84 & 88; EDIT 16 CNCE 26304. CONTEMPORARY PURPLE-DYED VELLUM OVER THIN FLEXIBLE BOARDS with overlapping foreedges, flat spine with later manuscript title and remnants of a paper label (color faded), all edges gilt and gauffered, double headbands in red and gray silk, evidence of four green linen ties
