PHILELPHUS FRANCISCUS.

SATYRAE.

      Milan: Christophorus Valdarfer, 1476 - [149] leaves missing the final blank. Single column roman type 35 lines of text per page. FIRST PRINTING. Attractive 19th century calf over thick bevelled boards very elaborately blind tooled in the style of 15th century books raised bands six spine panels two of them decorated with florals four with a pair of heraldic griffins. With initial spaces. Two small book labels on front pastedown: H.N.F. (Helmut N. Friedlaender) and a.r.s. Joints rather worn (though with no cracks) minor wear to corners and raised bands front cover with small area of lost patina but the binding solid bright and otherwise well preserved. First 44 leaves with small round wormholes in margin (beginning with eight and quickly decreasing the text unaffected) final 36 leaves similarly wormed with one small hole becoming five in the text and a half dozen more forming in the margin near the end (the holes in the text area so small as to scarcely affect any letters the final five leaves with one hole slightly elongated but this hole well away from the text) otherwise in fine condition internally the leaves almost entirely clean as well as remarkably fresh and bright. Despite its defects AN ATTRACTIVE COPY THE LEAVES EXTRAORDINARILY FRESH AND CLEAN. Goff P-615; BMC VI, 726-27. This is the Friedlaender copy in typically excellent condition of the very scarce first printing of a secular incunable from the 1470s. The 100 satires that make up the text here reveal the life and intrigues of Italian courts and scholarly circles in the middle of the 15th century at the height of enthusiasm for Renaissance ideas. Philelphus' satires like those of his model the Roman poet Horace are conversational in tone sometimes coarse and sometimes scholarly with many references to ancient history and literature. Written in dactylic hexameter each poem contains 100 lines (hence Philelphus gives them the learned name of hecatosticha). The author tells us he finished the satires in Milan in 1448 although they did not appear until our first printing some 28 years later. Franciscus Philelphus (Francesco Filelfo 1398-1481) had a checkered career as a wandering scholar and his satires reflect both his troubles and his triumphs. He believed that Cosimo de' Medici had tried to have him assassinated and he was ardent in his denunciations of this merchant prince of Florence. At the same time he was grateful for the patronage of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan and his powerful condottiere Francesco Sforza and he was not above lavishing flattery upon them and other powerful figures such as Alfonso of Aragon the ruler of Naples. Philelphus studied in Padua and was teaching in Venice before he was 20 years old. That republic sent him on a diplomatic mission to Constantinople where he learned Greek and married the daughter of a Greek scholar. Later he served the emperor Sigismund as a diplomat and by 1429 he had migrated to Florence where at first he was popular as a teacher of literature. His temper however was his undoing and he quarrelled bitterly with his fellow humanist Poggio as well as Cosimo de' Medici. By 1439 he was forced to take his teaching skills to Milan penning an epic Sforziade in honor of Francesco Sforza who rose to the position of duke after the death of Visconti. After Sforza's death in 1466 Philelphus now in his old age recommenced his wandering life teaching in Rome Siena and Pavia before returning to Florence to die in poverty. [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]