BATTISTA GUARINI - University of Oxford

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6. [Pastor fido: French]. Le berger fidelle … De l‟italien. A Lyon, par Michel
Be[ublin], M.D.XCVI, 12°. Pp. 296.
Reims, Bibliothèque municipale: P 1881 (lacking pp. 75-94).
Brisset‟s translation (see 1593/3). Baudrier, relying on information supplied by the
then Librarian of the Bibliothèque municipale in Reims, Eugène Courmeau, gives the
publisher‟s name as Michel Begon but more than half the surname and part of the date
are in fact obscured by two very black library stamps, so it is impossible to read the
details with any certainty. The name Begon, however, is too short for the
typographical balance of the imprint. This is the only work attributed by Baudrier to
Begon and we could perhaps hazard a guess that the publisher may in fact be Michel
Beublin, who was active in Lyon in the second half of the 1590s (see Baudrier I 44-
45). A careful examination of the date, bearing in mind the the spacing required for
typographical balance, shows that, while it is almost certainly 1596 („M.D.XCVI.‟), it
is definitely not 1599, as reported to Baudrier.
Baudrier I 29.
1597
1. Il pastor fido ... Hora in questa nuova decima impressione corretto, et adornato di
vaghe figure intagliate in rame, da Cristoforo Paulini. In Venetia, presso Franc o . de
Franc i . senese, M.D.XCVII, 8. Ff. 132.
*Chicago, University of Chicago Library: PQ4626.P4 1597.
The title-page is engraved and there are 5 signed and numbered engraved illustrations
in the text. Possibly the first illustrated edition of the text published in Italy. The
engravings by Paulino (this more normal spelling is used, when not abbreviated, on
the plates) ante-date the entry in Bénézit (VI, 554) by five years. The costumes of the
characters depicted and the general style and composition of the illustrations
anticipate the engravings and woodcuts used in editions of the Pastor fido well into
the 17 th century and are, indeed, strikingly similar to the rather more well-known and,
it has to be said, more accomplished engravings found in the quarto editions of 1602
(see 1602/4-6), etc.
ICCU (EDIT16).
2. Il pastor fido ... Hora in questa nuova decima impressione corretto, & di vaghe
figure ornato. In Venetia, presso Francesco de Franceschi senese, M.D.XCVII, 8.
Ff. 132.
*BNFRichelieu: 8º Re.4121. *Harvard, Mass., University Library (Houghton
Library): *IC5.G9317.590pn.