BEMBO, PIETRO.

GLI ASOLANI. IMPRESSI IN VENETIA, NELLE CASE D'ALDO ROMANO NEL ANNO MDV DEL MESE DI MARZO (ALDO, 1505) 1505

      small 4to, 97 leaves (a-m8, n1with Errata), 19th century stiff vellum. Italic type. First edition, first issue with dedication to Lucrezia Borgia, of Bembo's most famous literary work, a dialogue in the purest Italian prose and verse about the nature of love. Because of the political dispute between Lucrezia's husband Alfonso d'Este and Pope Julius II, Aldus decided soon after publication to suppress the dedication to her. Lucrezia was the most important lover of Bembo's life "corrisposto, il piu' ambizioso e memorabile, ma rischioso anche e struggente amore della sua vita" (Dionisotti). Fletcher, New Aldine Studies, p. 185: "Clough contends that the dedicatory was deliberately antedated by Bembo... that Aldus held three pages blank... that Aldus dared not risk spoiling the quantity of sheets already printed by putting them through the press once more to add the letter, and thus issued a quantity (one third of the pressrun?) with the blanks"). A very large copy (mm 125x211), a stain on m3. RENOUARD 48.1: "Premiere edition assez rare". UCLA 72. LAURENZIANA 90.