Il sogno amoroso. Idillio.
?Venice, c. 1590-1625.
Oblong 4to (158 x 250 mm.). Two inserted folding dedication leaves, [vi], [69], [5 blank], [75]-[82]p. In a single cursive hand, partly in two columns, music, THREE FULL-PAGE ALLEGORICAL INK DRAWINGS — one heightened in gold and another in silver — with mottoes and epigrams in banderoles, penwork initials including A NUDE COUPLE ENGAGED IN SEXUAL ACTIVITY FORMING THE LETTER E, headings in banderoles, main title lettered in silver and in a decorative frame.
Contemporary ?Venetian gilt vellum (minor defects), outer frame of a volute roll with masks and daisies, inner corner bouquets, open central oval surrounded by flames, flat spine gilt, old manuscript title, all edges gilt, evidence of four pink silk ties.
Sexual desire and the pangs of love bind together the music, verse, imagery and prose in THIS BEAUTIFUL UNPUBLISHED BAROQUE ANTHOLOGY. THE SUBJECTS, VOCABULARY, STYLE AND LITERARY INNOVATION POINT TO THE MOST IMPORTANT BAROQUE ITALIAN POET AS THE AUTHOR: GIOVAN BATTISTA MARINO (1569-1625). His early pieces — an “intricate forest of erotic compositions existing outside the works the poet published himself” (Guardiani, tr.) — circulated clandestinely. Many have been lost.
Dedicated to a yet unidentified noblewoman, Ordaura, by her lover, Mirillo, the manuscript’s diverse elements trace a single narrative arc from the lovers’ intense intimacy to their permanent separation. A clue to Ordaura’s identity lies in the recurrence of the name Maria throughout the verse and imagery.
Of the eight poems, four have prose introductions, two are set to music (7p.), one is an acrostic and one is penned perpendicularly to the rest of the volume. The sole extended prose piece remains unfinished. It expresses the poet’s yearning for his mistress.
THE ANTHOLOGY BEGINS WITH A LONG SEXUALLY CHARGED IDYLL RECOUNTING AN EROTIC DREAM. Twenty percent of its syntagmata and whole verses find direct parallels or verbatim correspondence in Marino’s first published poetry.
The lovers’ sexual encounter is a violent battle of shifting gender dominance between tongues and bodies. He stimulates her “with his bold finger…where the sense is more vivid” (pp. [22]-[23], tr.), then thrusts his “weapon” into her open “wound”. In the end, she suddenly triumphs, and Mirillo trembles: “the sweat of death…spills onto the wound” (p. [24], tr.).
The poem’s accompanying EROTIC FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATION shows a pierced heart, its wound a vulva transfixed by an arrow. In bold gold letters, the name Maria, as a monogram, interlaces the heart and frames the vulva.
On facing pages, the two other illustrations depict the sun — radiant and partially obscured by clouds — and a lunar eclipse. These symbolize the beloved’s dazzling presence, the longing of fleeting trysts and the gloom of her absence. The supporting text exploits the ambiguity of the Italian word sol as “sun”, “only” or “lonely”. In good condition (five blank upper outer corners with a pale stain, a long split in the second folding leaf).
¶Guardiani, “Erotica Mariniana” in Quaderni d’italianistica VII (1986) 197-207; Russo, “Sulle ‘amorose tenerezze’ del Marino. Tra Epitalami e Adone” in Italique XVII (2014) 141-62.
Price: $69,000.00