GIRALDI CINTHIO, Gio Battista Le Tragedie. 1583
Description
GIRALDI CINTHIO, Gio Battista
Le Tragedie.
Venice, Giulio Cesare Cagnacini, 1583.
£2250.00
FIRST EDITION thus. 8vo. pp (xvi) 135 (i) + 143 +157(iii) +118 (ii) + 127 (i) + 142 (ii) + 135 (i) + 118 (ii) + 149 (iii). Nine works in one, sep t-p plus general t-p and prefaces. Italic letter, Cagnacini's woodcut device on recto and woodcut portrait of author within ornate frame on verso of all t-ps, woodcut initials and ornaments. A little browning, light marginal waterstain to a few ll. of first work, occasional slight yellowing, contemp. ex libris of Giuliano Roura(?) on general t-p, acquisition note dated 1826 on front pastedown, early printed stubs in red and black Gothic exposed. A good clean copy in contemp. vellum over boards, a little cracking to upper joint and spine.
First edition of the complete collected dramatic works of Giraldi Cinthio (1506-1573), novelist and poet from Ferrara, sometime professor of literature at the university there and from 1542-1560 private secretary to Duke Ercole II (for whom the plays were written and performed) and Alfonso II d'Este. He occupied the chair of rhetoric at Pavia from 1568 until shortly before his death. The principal works of Cinthio were these nine tragedies and the Hecatommithi , a large collection of tales in the style of Boccaccio and Bandello. He himself adapted several of their plots as the basis for his plays. Cinthio was the single most important influence in C16 Italian tragedy and his Orbecche is the first known vernacular tragedy to have been produced on a modern European stage. Its influence was felt far outside Italy, Luigi Giovio, a generation later, speaks of it as the model of all subsequent tragedies. Shakespeare borrowed freely from Cinthio for 'Othello' and 'Measure for Measure', and Cinthio's 'Cleopatra' telling of her doomed love for Marc Anthony may have been further inspiration to him.
Like Shakespeare, Cinthio liked exotic locations; his 'Arrenopia' takes place between Scotland and Ireland and 'Gli Antivalomeni' is set in London. These five act dramas are among the first to contain typical elements of modern European theatre, using psychological violence and horror in spectacular function with the dramatic action structured in real time. The series is rarely found complete as they were also sold separately. BM STC It. p 305. Gamba 1435 "e assai rare questa Raccolta". Brunet II 1607. Adams G715 (UL copy, parts 1-4 only).
L1056
Price
£0.00
