Opus Macaronicorum.
Toscolano, Alessandro dei Paganini 5 January 1521.
16mo (121 x 76 mm.). 272, [8] leaves. PRINTED IN TWO SIZES OF PAGANINI’S SMALL UPRIGHT ITALICS WITH ROMAN AND GOTHIC ELEMENTS, shoulder notes in his smallest font, FIFTY-FOUR FULL-PAGE WOODCUTS.
Mid-19th century crushed blind-ruled red morocco (rubbed), gilt-lettered spine, all edges gilt, blue silk marker.
FIRST COMPLETE EDITION AND THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THESE WONDERFUL STRONGLY MODELLED WOODCUTS.
THIS WORK ESTABLISHED THE NEW LITERARY GENRE OF MACARONICS, the comic literary practice of mixing Latin words and Italian words with Latin inflections. Rabelais placed this title in the imaginary library of St. Victor.
The most celebrated piece relates the adventures of Baldus (a prince raised as a peasant) and his friends, the giant Fracasso, the rogue Cingar and the dog-man Falchetto, who end up in a giant pumpkin where poets, philosophers and other liars suffer diabolic dentistry. The final eight cantos are published here for the first time as is his “Battle of Flies and Ants”. In good condition (title soiled, a couple of minor spots).
¶Elie, “Alessandro dei Paganini” in Gutenberg Jahrbuch 1967 99-103 no. 18; Nuovo, Alessandro Paganino 51; Balsamo & Tinto, “I Corsivi dei Paganini” in Origini del corsivo 79-101, 79 “independent models, never copied” (tr.), 86 & fig. 24; Sander, Le Livre à figure italien 2832; Brunet II: 1317 “much sought after…very difficult to find” (tr.); EDIT16 CNCE 19359.
Price: $16,500.00