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Le Selvette.”

"4to (206x142 mm.), solid 18th cent. stiff vellum, with a floral tool in gold, sprinkled edges, a good copy with capital letters supplied by an almost contemporary hand in red and blue, some rubrication in red, two illuminated initials faded with marginal extension with gold dots preserved (the first leaves possibly delicately washed at an early date). Printed in roman type, ff. 6 nn., 100 numb., 2 nn. (last orig. blank present, with a repair to lower corner). First edition, very rare, dedicated to Isabella d’Este (1474-1539), Marquess of Mantova and wife of Federico II Gonzaga, one of the most authoritative women of the Renaissance and of the Italian cultural world of her time, a patron of the arts – portrayed by Leonardo and Titian - as well as a leader in fashion, whose innovative style of dress was copied by numerous noblewomen. The ‘Selvette’, a prose work with poetic interludes by the Venetian scholar Niccolò Liburnio (1474-1557), canon of the Basilica of San Marco, are placed in the context of the classic opposition between the old and the new vernacular literature, in front of which Liburnio, still recognizing the importance of the ancient 'fathers' of the language (Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio) leans towards a decisive affirmation of the authority of the moderns (Antonio Tebaldeo, Iacopo Sannazzaro, Pietro Bembo). Parenti, p. 312; BMC STC It. p. 377; not in Adams; Brunet III, 1068; Graesse IV, 202. Apparently, no copy listed at auction on RBH in last 30 years."