Allegri, Alessandro. 1560-1620.

Fantastica Visione Di Parri da Pozzolatico, moderno [added in manuscript: Poderaio] in Piandigiullari.

Lucca, [O. Guidoboni] 1613.

4to (202 x 145 mm.). [iv], [4]p. Woodcut title vignette of a camel beneath the motto VIRIBVS IMPAR.

20th-century gilt red sheep (G. Bramante, Novara; scuffed), gilt spine title (crown and base chipped), paste paper endleaves, 18th-century speckled wrappers preserved, twenty leaves of blank 18th-century paper bound in to fill out the binding.

            First Edition of an affectionate parody of The Divine Comedy in the voice of the author’s peasant alter-ego, “Parri da Pozzolatico”. The Fantastic Vision comprises a single canto in which — rather than ascending Mt. Purgatory and visiting Paradise — the author climbs to the top of a hill guided by a weeping lady wearing a dress made of books. She represents the Florentine Academy, whose honor is under attack by boorish critics. The tongue-in-cheek dedication to Dante presents heliocentrism as a metaphor for the fickleness of public opinion.
            Allegri was a Florentine ex-courtier and poet in the orbit of Galileo, who sent a copy of this book to a friend. Apparently hastily printed, the edition contains numerous errors, including a missing word in the title, which are here corrected in ink as in many copies. A few minor stains, with later ink pagination 335-41.
¶Arnaudo, Dante barocco. L’influenza della Divina comedia su letteratura e cultura del Seicento italiano 90-4; Sabbatino, “’La Terra gira.’ Alessandro Allegri e la nuova scienza di Galileo” in Letteratura e Potere/Poteri. Atti del XXIV Congresso dell’ADI...2021 edd. Manganaro et al. 1-12 (online); Razzolini, Bibliografia dei testi di lingua 18; Piantanida, Autori italiani del ‘600 III: 2870.

Item #12462

Price: $1,800.00