BATTISTA GUARINI - University of Oxford

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spettanti all‟arte. Della poesia rappresentativa: e del modo di rappresentare le
favole sceniche discorso di Angelo Ingegneri ec. Due discorsi di Faustino Summo
padovano. L‟uno contro le tragicommedie, e le pastorali, l‟altro contro il Pastor
fido. In Verona, per Alberto Tumerani, MDCCXXXVIII, 4º. Pp. [8], 596.
4.4. Delle opere … Tomo quarto nel quale si contengono le Considerazioni intorno al
Pastorfido dell‟Ecc. D. Gio. Pietro Malacreta. Risposta alle Considerazioni
medesime di Paolo Beni. Discorso di Paolo Beni sopra il Pastorfido, e in risposta al
Malacreta. Apologia di Giovanni Savio veneziano d. in difesa del Pastorfido. In
Verona, per Giovanni Tumermani, MDCCXXXVIII, 4º. Pp. [6], 643 [i.e. 641].
Bodleian: Δ.983-986, Taylorian: Vet.Ital.III.C.66-69, Vet.Ital.III.C.65 (a variant copy
of vol. 1). BL (3 sets): 83.h.6-9 (LP copy), 639.k.15-18, G.765-768. *BNF: Yd.636-
640. *BNFRichelieu: 8º Re.4118(1-4).
Edited by Giovanni Barotti and Apostolo Zeno and dedicated to the Marquese Ercole
Bevilacqua and to eight other worthies of the city of Ferrara, this is the most complete
edition of the works of Guarini and of „le molte Critiche e Apologie intorno al celebre
Pastorfido composte‟ ever published. Four volumes were originally projected, then
eight, but in spite of the growing list of subscribers, the gradual lowering of the price
and the publisher‟s increasingly desperate exhortations to the „Signori Associati‟, the
project finally ran out of steam and only four volumes were published. Nevertheless,
with its „particolare splendidezza di carta, di caratteri, e rami‟, it has, as its publisher
intended, „tutte quelle grazie e beltà che mai edizione alcuna possa avere‟.
Vol. 1 of most of the sets examined contains, at the end, a 4-page prospectus
(„manifesto‟) from which these last words are taken. Here, „Alberto Timermani
Stampatore in Verona‟ addresses „tutti gli Amatori delle buone Lettere e
singolarmente della Toscana Poesia‟, giving, on the first page, details of the contents
of his new edition, the type to be used, the price of subscription and so on, and, on the
remaining three pages, a „Spiegazione ed Allegoria de‟ Rami posti nella Pastorale con
li nomi de‟ Signori Disegnatori e Intagliatori‟, being full details of the plates and other
engravings used in the first volume, fuller indeed than those given in the body of the
volume itself. (A fuller list is, however, given in the second volume of the engravings
which appear therein.) The addition of these „molti e bellissimi rami‟ was intended to
give „un lustro e ornamento a quest‟ opere non solo di Poesia ma di Pittura‟. As in
1735/1 only the portrait of Guarini and the plate for Act V of the Pastor fido retain the
names of their creators, though, as befits this deluxe edition, all the full-page plate in
vol. 1 are printed within elaborate engraved frames designed by Bernard Picart.
These frames, which, according to Tumermani, „alludono alle cose amorose e
Poetiche‟, were executed by Francesco Zucchi and include flowers or foliage or
musical instruments or a pierced heart. They appear to be used indiscriminately. The
great majority of the smaller engravings used throughout the edition, mainly in the
first volume and increasingly sparingly in the others, are also by Zucchi, based on
designs by a dozen or so artists but principally by Bernard Picart and Francesco
Zugni, while about half a dozen of Chasteau‟s engravings, familiar from the earlier
London and Verona editions, put in an appearance.
The frontispiece of vol. 2 is by Zucchi after Gianbettino Zignaroli (or Cignaroli),
while that to vol. 3 is by Antionio Balestra, who designed the allegorical figure of