Joannis Francisci Pici Mirandulae Domini, Et Concordiae Comitis (Giovanni Francesco Pico, Della Mirandola, Count Of Concordia)

De Amore Divino. Libri Quattuoz. (on Divine Love, in Four Books)

      Jacobum Mazochium (Giacomo Mazzocchi), November 26, 1516. Very Good Dampstaining to upper page corner with scattered foxing, inscription to title page ( jo: Delphini). Lower page corner 51-52 perished, unrepaired tear in pages 105-06. sewn, spine ribbed, not bound. Decorative woodcut border on title-page. Title and dedication pages followed by 106 pages of Latin text. Listed as the first edition in Pichiana: Bibliografia delle edizioni e degli studi, ed. Leonardo Quaquarelli and Zita Zanardi (Florence: Leo S. Olschski, 2005) page 243-44. Located only in the libraries of Harvard, Princeton, Duke and the University of San Francisco. The Pico della Mirandola were hereditary lords of the Mirandola, a small province in the region of Emilia-Romagna near Ferrara in northern Italy, which they ruled as independent sovereigns. The family were allied to the Kings of France until they lost their province to Louis IV's rival, the Holy Roman Emperor, in 1708 (thus adding some interest to the inscription on this work. ) The elder of the Pici, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, like his nephew Giovanni Francesco, was an Italian humanist philosopher enjoying the patronage of the Medici. They were each tutors to the Medici, the elder in fact was the tutor of Lorenzo the Magnificent's son who became Pope Leo X, to whom the present work is dedicated. And under whom Giacomo Mazzocchi held the papal printing privilege. Mazzocchi had previously published a letter on the sculptures in the Cortile del Belvedere by Giovanni Francesco Pico Della Mirandola in 1513. All concerned came to untimely ends. The elder Pico della Mirandola was murdered, most likely on the orders of the Medici. Mazzocchi disappeared during the Sack of Rome in 1527, an attack carried out by the mutinous troops of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V in his war with the French, Italian and Papal alliance. Finally, in 1533 Giovanni Francesco died at the hands of his own nephew who succeeded him. A bloody and dangerous time even for philosophers.