The Flower of Italian Letters

Lettere di XIII huomini illustri. Nellequali sono due libri di diversi altri auttori, et il fiore di quante belle lettere, che sin'hora si sono vedute; con molte del Bembo, del Navagero, de Fracastoro, del Manutio, & di altri famosi auttori non piu date in luce.

Venice: Per Comin da Trino di Monferrato, 1561.

Price: $600.00


About the item

[16], 768 pp. Woodcut printer's device on title. 1 vols. Small 8vo. The Flower of Italian Letters. Contemporary vellum with original ties. Covers a bit worn and soiled, some early dampstaining to lower outer corner of last several leaves. Overall, a good, solid copy. Gamba, B. Serie dei testi, 1828, no. 1245-1247; not in Adams.

Item #232896

A collection which was originally published in 1554, compiled by Atanagi, and containing letters by the original 13 authors: Ludovico Ganosa; Giovanni Battista Sanga; Giovanni Guidiccioni; Giovanni Matteo Giberto; Francesco della Torre; Jacopo Sadoleto; Nicoló Ardinghelli; Paolo Manuzio; Paolo Giovio; Bernardo Tasso; Annibal Caro; Claudio Tolomei; and Paulo Sadoleto.

Libri 14 and 15 were added to the 3rd edition of 1556, in which more letters by the above were compiled by Ruscelli, as well as Giovanni Boccaccio; Lorenzo de' Medici; Daniel Barbaro; Alberto Lolio; Giacomo Sannazaro; Andrea Navagero; Cardinal Bembo, and others.

All of the early editions are very scarce: OCLC finds no locations for either the 1554 or the 1556 editions, only 4 locations in the US for this edition of 1561.