List 4-2013 - Libreria Antiquaria Alberto Govi

S a C r e d r e p r e S e n tat i o n
14) SACCHETTI, Cesare (fl. 2 nd half of the 16 th cent.). La gloriosa e trionfante vittoria donata dal grande Iddio al popolo
Hebreo per mezzo di Giudith sua fedelissima serva. Ridotta in comedia. Composta per Cesare Sacchetti bolognese, et date
[sic] in luce. Firenze, 1575.
4to; modern stiff vellum, gilt title on spine; (34) ll. Large woodcut vignette on the title-page depicting the beheading of Holofernes by Judith.
Text printed on two columns. Inner margin of the volume reinforced, some marginal repairs slightly affecting the text in a few pages (on l. B2
the loss of text has been supplied by hand), otherwise a good copy.
RARE SECOND EDITION. La gloriosa e trionfante vittoria was first published in Bologna
in 1564 by Alessandro Benacci, together with the Rappresentatione di santo Christoforo
martire by the same author. The two works were later included in Il terzo libro di feste,
rappresentationi, et comedie spirituali di diversi santi e sante, del Testamento Vecchio, et
Nuovo, composte da diversi autori (Florence, 1578), a collection issued by Giunta of 31 different
texts, everyone bearing its own title-page and its own pagination (cf. A. Cioni, Bibliografia
delle sacre rappresentazioni, Firenze, 1961, p. 28).
It is a sacred representation in five acts in prose, in which the biblical story of Judith and
Holofernes is told in a bizarre manner with the introduction of strange and imaginary characters,
as the villain Frusto, who speaks in the dialect of Bologna, the parasite Formidabile, the
blind Bacolo, the knaves Trinca and Tronco, the two crazy Pliny and Livy, the eunuch Vagho,
the doctor Servius, the barber Ottone, etc. The volume concludes with fourteen scathing
terzine of L’Autore a i finti amici (The Author to the fake friends) (cf. F. Capozzi, The Evolution
and Transformation of the Judith and Holofernes Theme in Italian Drama and Art
Before 1627, Madison, 1975, p. 127).
Almost nothing is known about the Bolognese poet Cesare Sacchetti. He also published Il
primo et secondo canto sopra i benemeriti di monsignore vescovo di Narni (Bologna, 1565),
I tre canti per la nova creatione del sommo pontefice papa Pio quinto Ghiselieri bolognese
(Bologna, 1566), Tre canti in lode del sommo, et Romano pontefice nostro sig. papa Sisto
Quinto (Bologna, 1586), and the Stanze in materia della morte di Lodovico, e Hippolita
amanti bolognesi (Bologna, 1587).
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