Details
BENIVIENI, Girolamo (ca. 1452-1542). Canzoni e sonetti dell'amore e della bellezza divina, con commento. Florence: Antonio Tubini, Laurentius (Francisci) de Alopa, Venetus, and Andrea Ghirlandi, 7 [or 8] September 1500.
Chancery 2° (273 x 194 mm). Collation: π4 a-n8 o6 oo10 p8 q10 r-s6 (π1r title, verso blank, π2r table, π3r errata and corrigenda, π4v dedication to Giovanni Francesco Pico (nephew of Pico della Mirandola), a1r proemio, a3r commento, a7r Canzone, r1r Deploratoria in verse addressed to Giovanni Francesco Pico, r5v dedication to Niccolo Vicecomite da Coreggio, r6v Amore, s6v colophon). 154 leaves, a1-s6 foliated I-CL. 44 lines of commentary plus headline, text with commentary surround, shoulder notes, fols. r1-s6 in two columns. Types 2:107R (text), 1:86R (commentary). 10- to 2-line initial spaces with guide letters. (Worming to upper gutter margins on first 3 quires, just catching a few letters on c4-6, gutter of last leaf reinforced on verso.) 17th-century limp vellum.
Provenance: a few neat contemporary interlinear or marginal ink corrections; inscription on last page in a 17th-century hand, "MCCCCC don P.F. Fa pur bene e no falire fa pur bene e lascia dire"; 19th-century ms. shelfmark, C 4 20, on lower pastedown.
FIRST EDITION of Benivieni's Neoplatonic verse summary of Marsilio Ficino's Libro dello amore, a commentary on Plato's Symposium that expressed Ficino's theory of love. Benivieni, a prolific versifier of conventionally Petrarchian love poems, was a close friend of both Ficino and the Florentine humanist Pico della Mirandola, whose only work in Italian was a prose commentary on Benivieni's Canzone (at the time still unpublished but paraphrased by the latter in the commentary of the present edition). All three were supporters of Savonarola, as were the printers Tubini, Laurentius de Alopa and Andrea Ghirlandi, who printed, anonymously, a few of the preacher's sermons during their short-lived partnership in 1499-1500 (the present edition is one of only three stating their names). Benivieni, who translated Savonarola's De simplicitate into Italian (1496, Goff S-272), rewrote some of his love poems to give them a religious coloring after becoming a follower of the Dominican, and one of his laude was sung around the famous "bruciamento", the bonfire held in the Piazza della Signoria during the Carnival on 7 February 1497. A DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE RITUAL BONFIRE--THE ORIGINAL "BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES"--APPARENTLY THE FIRST PRINTED EYE-WITNESS DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENT, APPEARS IN THE Canzone, on fols. CXVIr-CXVIIr (oo6r-7r), with the Deprecatorio a Dio, a poem celebrating the purification by fire of the sins of the Florentines, which was among the chants recited there. Benivieni's detailed list of the "lascivious, vain and detestable objects" that were thrown on the fire includes paintings, musical instruments, "womanly ornaments" such as mirrors, perfumes and jewelry ("of such quantities as one would not believe could exist"), inumerable dice, cards, "and other such works of Satan". He does not explicitly mention any books or manuscripts, which were, however, certainly burned there, contributing in part to the extreme rarity of so many contemporary Florentine and even non-Florentine imprints of profane Italian literature.
H *2788; BMC VI, 693 (IB. 28083, variant copy in the first state); GW 3850 (some copies are dated viii Sept.); IGI 1481; Pellechet 2047; Voulliéme 2998; Goff B-328.
Chancery 2° (273 x 194 mm). Collation: π4 a-n8 o6 oo10 p8 q10 r-s6 (π1r title, verso blank, π2r table, π3r errata and corrigenda, π4v dedication to Giovanni Francesco Pico (nephew of Pico della Mirandola), a1r proemio, a3r commento, a7r Canzone, r1r Deploratoria in verse addressed to Giovanni Francesco Pico, r5v dedication to Niccolo Vicecomite da Coreggio, r6v Amore, s6v colophon). 154 leaves, a1-s6 foliated I-CL. 44 lines of commentary plus headline, text with commentary surround, shoulder notes, fols. r1-s6 in two columns. Types 2:107R (text), 1:86R (commentary). 10- to 2-line initial spaces with guide letters. (Worming to upper gutter margins on first 3 quires, just catching a few letters on c4-6, gutter of last leaf reinforced on verso.) 17th-century limp vellum.
Provenance: a few neat contemporary interlinear or marginal ink corrections; inscription on last page in a 17th-century hand, "MCCCCC don P.F. Fa pur bene e no falire fa pur bene e lascia dire"; 19th-century ms. shelfmark, C 4 20, on lower pastedown.
FIRST EDITION of Benivieni's Neoplatonic verse summary of Marsilio Ficino's Libro dello amore, a commentary on Plato's Symposium that expressed Ficino's theory of love. Benivieni, a prolific versifier of conventionally Petrarchian love poems, was a close friend of both Ficino and the Florentine humanist Pico della Mirandola, whose only work in Italian was a prose commentary on Benivieni's Canzone (at the time still unpublished but paraphrased by the latter in the commentary of the present edition). All three were supporters of Savonarola, as were the printers Tubini, Laurentius de Alopa and Andrea Ghirlandi, who printed, anonymously, a few of the preacher's sermons during their short-lived partnership in 1499-1500 (the present edition is one of only three stating their names). Benivieni, who translated Savonarola's De simplicitate into Italian (1496, Goff S-272), rewrote some of his love poems to give them a religious coloring after becoming a follower of the Dominican, and one of his laude was sung around the famous "bruciamento", the bonfire held in the Piazza della Signoria during the Carnival on 7 February 1497. A DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE RITUAL BONFIRE--THE ORIGINAL "BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES"--APPARENTLY THE FIRST PRINTED EYE-WITNESS DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENT, APPEARS IN THE Canzone, on fols. CXVIr-CXVIIr (oo6r-7r), with the Deprecatorio a Dio, a poem celebrating the purification by fire of the sins of the Florentines, which was among the chants recited there. Benivieni's detailed list of the "lascivious, vain and detestable objects" that were thrown on the fire includes paintings, musical instruments, "womanly ornaments" such as mirrors, perfumes and jewelry ("of such quantities as one would not believe could exist"), inumerable dice, cards, "and other such works of Satan". He does not explicitly mention any books or manuscripts, which were, however, certainly burned there, contributing in part to the extreme rarity of so many contemporary Florentine and even non-Florentine imprints of profane Italian literature.
H *2788; BMC VI, 693 (IB. 28083, variant copy in the first state); GW 3850 (some copies are dated viii Sept.); IGI 1481; Pellechet 2047; Voulliéme 2998; Goff B-328.