SANNAZARO, JACOPO.

Arcadia [bound with] Sonetti e canzoni.

      Venice, Aldus, 1534, First Aldine edition of Sonetti e Canzoni; second Aldine edition of Arcadia. References: Renouard, 112:5,6; Ahmanson-Murphy 236-237; Adams S-320 and 338., Octavo (16 cm); two volumes in one binding: 91 [1]; 48 [4] leaves, with errors in pagination. Printer's anchor and dolphin device appears on title page and final page of both volumes, four times in all. Bound in recent cervine vellum in period style, titled in gilt on spine. Edges gilt, probably in 18th century. Watercolor crest on preliminary blank. Nineteenth-century ownership inscriptions on front blank. Text bright, clean and unblemished. ¶ Second Aldine edition of the Arcadia, and first of the songs and sonnets, here bound together as usual. An earlier edition of Sonetti e Canzoni, with slightly different contents, had appeared in 1530. Sannazaro's Arcadia was a seminal Renaissance invention, a sort of pastoral romance in prose and poetry. Its audience was enthusiastic, and editions were printed virtually every other year through the 16th century, and it echoed through every national literature in Europe for two centuries. The songs and sonnets were written at the apex of the Petrarchan movement in Italian literature, and stand among its most distinguished successes. In a note to the reader at the end of the text, the editor (probably Paolo Manuzio) states he chose the most elegant and representative of Sannazaro's poems, excluding spuriously attributed verses unworthy of his memory.