Poemata.
Rome, F.M. Calvo May 1524.
4to (210 x 151 mm.). [ii], [60], [1]p. PRINTED ON VELLUM.
CONTEMPORARY BLIND- AND GILT-DECORATED ROMAN BINDING of brown morocco over paper boards, panels with straight and curved frames, branches, flames, daisies and a ropework central medallion (some gilding lost, corners and tips slightly defective), vellum pastedowns and their stubs (see below), evidence of eight green fabric ties, all edges gilt.
First Edition of the color theorist, classical scholar and playwright’s first book of verse. In late 1523, Telesio (1482-1534) was called from Milan to Rome, where he immediately praised the newly elected Pope Clement VII in print, joined the humanist circles of Giovio and the future Pope Paul IV and secured the patronage of Gian Matteo Giberti, this book’s dedicatee.
The present collection includes two pieces that herald themes in Telesio’s 1527 stage play. Other poems describe a bronze lamp given by a nobleman named Lampius (nomen omen), the 1521 explosion of a gunpowder depot in the Castello Sforzesco and the Archinto Gardens in Milan. Telesio cyclically imposed six different meters to create shaped poetry.
The final leaf reveals printing practice. The recto’s bearer type is the final six lines of page [56], and the blank verso’s bearer type is the whole of page [60].
The bindery was closely connected to Calvo’s shop, as the front pastedown and its conjugate stub are printer’s waste from the edition.
Apparently a presentation copy, this belonged to poet Francesco Antonio d’Amico (signed twice), who was, like Telesio, a native of Cosenza and a member of its Accademia Parrasiana (later Telesiana); signature of Neapolitan astronomer Agostino Ariani (1672-1748); two illegible signatures (one early, one late); pencil note dated November 1947 of Georges Petit de Grandvoir (1878-1956). I have not identified another example on vellum. In good condition.
¶Conforti, “Antonio Telesio umanista e poeta” online; Osborne, Telesio and Morato on the Meaning of Colours (Renaissance Colour Symbolism II) (2018) 1-7; Ottaviani, “Da Antonio Telesio a Marco Aurelio Severino: fra storia naturale e antiquaria” in Bruniana & Campanelliana XVI (2010) 139-48; EDIT16 CNCE 53286; see de Marinis, La Legatura artistica in Italia 545 & Tav. XCIII.
Price: $32,000.00