Hebrew Printing in Sabbioneta 1 AFFO, Ireneo - Schulz-Falster Rare ...

8vo, pp. 46; uncut in contemporary decorative wrappers; lower
wrapper frayed and with some marginal loss; a little dog-eared and
spine chipped; an attractive copy.
An interesting report on contemporary ballet and theatre by Sara Goudar,
wife of the adventurer, political writer and friend of Casanova, Ange
Goudar. The work is in the form of letters addressed to their acquaintance
John Child, second Earl Tilney, who lived for over thirty years in Florence
and Naples, and was very interested in music and dance. The letters were
published in a number of editions, all very uncommon, between 1774 and
1776.
After some general remarks on the respective merits of music, theatre,
ballet and dance, Sara Goudar gives reviews of a number of performances in
Florence, beginning with Perseus and Andromeda, with music by Giuseppe
Gazaniga, and Corneille’s Le Cid, with details of the plot, leading artists
and the orchestra. Practical information is also included, such as prices of
tickets, visiting troupes, programmes of other theatres etc., followed by
general gossip regarding Lord Hamilton.
The work is of some importance as an early report on ballet, see Derra de
Moroda 1124 and Magreil, A Bibliography of Dancing, p. 112.
Mars 114; Childs, Casanoviana 445; no further copies found of this edition in
RLIN and OCLC; two other editions with diVerent pagination were published
the same year, OCLC lists copies at Yale, Chicago and Utrecht of one (pp. 64) and
Utrecht and UCLA of the other one (pp. 35,1).
Venetian Literary Debate
47 [GOZZI, Carlo.] Fogli sopra alcune Massime del Genio
e Costumi del Secolo dell’Abate Pietro Chiari e contro a’ poeti
Nugnez de’nostri tempi. Venice, Paolo Colombani, 1761. £480
8vo, pp. 176; title vignette, decorative initials and head- and tailpieces;
uncut in contemporary limp boards, spine lettered in manuscript;
extremities a little rubbed, else Wne.
First edition of Gozzi’s Wnal shot in the long drawn out polemic with his
contemporaries Pietro Chiari and Goldoni, about the role of the theatre and
literature in Venice. Gozzi takes issue with Chiari’s Il Genio e Costumi del
Secolo corrente, his lively picture of eighteenth century mores, customs and
failings, with particular reference to the situation in Venice. Carlo Gozzi
(1720–1806) satirises both Chiari and Gozzi as ‘poeti Nugnez’, based on
the character in Gil Blas, as writers who take themselves too seriously, and
who through their vulgar and entertaining plays subvert Venetian society.
This work is in eVect a precursor to Gozzi’s later autobiography, his ‘Useless
Memoirs of the Life of Carlo Gozzi written by himself and published out of
humility’, Wrst published in 1797–99, where he again mounts his defence
against his adversaries.
The work also contains parts of his romantic poem Marfisa Bizzara, not
published until ten years later.
catalogue fourteen