Rare early editions of the first two books of the collected letters of Tuscan writer and poet Pietro Aretino (1492-1556). Published over the course of around twenty years (1538-57) in six volumes in total, Aretino’s almost 3,000 letters were extremely popular; Curtio Navo’s edition of the first volume was one of at least eight editions to be printed in Venice between 1538-9 alone. The second volume here, Al Sacratissimo Re, is the second edition of the second book (first published 1542).
Aretino corresponded with many of the notable individuals of sixteenth-century Europe, including the Holy Roman Emperor, the Pope, Michelangelo, Veronica Gambara, Pietro Bembo, members of the Medici and Gonzaga families and the monarchs of France, Portugal, Hungary and Poland. The dedication of the second volume of letters to Tudor king Henry VIII earned Aretino a gratuity from the English monarch. Alongside what they show of Aretino’s impressive personal connections, the letters are significant for the colourful vernacular in which they are written.
Small book-plate on inside front paste-down. Sparse marginal annotation in neat hand, in brown ink (some loss due to trimming) and sidelining in both ink and pencil throughout.
Both title pages with significant repairs, with some loss; repairs to upper blank margins of first 23 leaves of first volume and sporadically thereafter throughout both, in several cases touching text.
CNCE 2409, 2466.
[OCLC: Vol. I: 1 in the US (Harvard), UK: Warwick. Vol. 2: US: Yale, Harvard and Illinois].
