FORTUNIO, FRANCESCO

Regole grammaticali Della Volgar Lingua, Vivovamente reviste, et Con Somma Diligentia Carrette

      In Vinegia, Figliuli di Aldo, 1541. Small 8vo. Titlepage, (Titlepage), (3ff), 47ff (numbered on recto), (i)ff with on verso the mark of Aldus. 18th century mottled calf, spine gilt. Titleshield on spine. Edges stained red. corners a bit rubbed & top and bottom of spine slightly damaged). Exlibris in ink in a contemporary hand on the titlepage: "Ex Libris Lud. Grozelier 1622" * Early edition of the first printed Italian Grammar. The first edition was published in 1516 by Bernardino Vercelle, Ancona. Our copy is the first Aldine edition. Brian Richardson in his 'Print Culture in Renaissance Italy says "What was still lacking for writers and editors who wished to follow Boccacio, Dante or Petrarch was a grammar of Trecento usage. It was in response to this widely-felt need that in September... 1516, Gian Francesco Fortunio published his Regole Grammaticale Della Volgar Lingua. The work was printed in Ancona, wher Fortunio was podestà, but the author was born in Pordenone in Friuti and his cultural roots were in the Veneto. Fortunio provided a series of rules, set out in a manner relatively easy to follow, which covered certain aspects of morphology, such as noun and verb endings and pronouns, and also orthography... But in giving his rules, Fortunio also offered critical comments on the texts of Petrarch and Dante... and to a lesser extent, on the Decameron... Fortunio's grammar provided rules and an implicit critical methodology which were potentially of considerable help for editors. However, it took a few years, until the early 1520's, for Venetian editors to try to apply his lessons systematically." (p. 66) [Adams 795; Renouard 122,2; Fock Cat. Bibl. Aldina p. 60 "Erste Aldinenausgabevon grosser Seltenheit"]