Manzini

Il Dragone di Macdeonia

      Manzini, Luigi. Il Dragone di Macdeonia. Estinto sotto il Gouerno di Assuero Araserse, il Grande, Rè de' Persi, e di'Medi. Istoria E Osservazioni di Lvigi Manzini. Al Serenissimo Ferdinando II Gran Dvca di Toscana. In Bologna: Gio. Battista Ferroni, 1643. Quarto. xii, 214 p. Engraved titlepage. (14) 214, (2). Contemporary stiff boards (rubbed). Dampstains to the gutter margin of the prelims, including the engraved titlepage (not very noticeable except on the half-title). Luigi Manzini (1604-1657, Bologna) was the younger brother of the better-known writer Giovanni Battista Manzini, (1599-1664.) Luigi left the priesthood before the age of 40 and devoted himself to writing of religious biographies, as well as literature, including verse for a festival book Applavsi festivi fatti in Roma per l'elezzione di Ferdinando III (1637) and a play Gli Amici eroi (1628). Manzini was particularly interested in the history of the Queen Ester legend and wrote Le tvrbolenze d'Israele, 1633, and this romance Il Dragone di Macdeonia, "un tema pij spostato nell'area classical." According to Ezio Raimondi, Il Dragone di Macdeonia, an example of baroque literature from the Bologna area, based on French as well as classical models, has passages of color and power, especially in the personality of Ester. The splendid frontispiece is by Giovanni Battista Coriolano, an Italian engraver (1590 – 1649). It pictures a slain dragon at an altar with the Medici arms. It refers to the historical defeat of the Persians by the Greeks, under Xerxes, at the naval Battle of Salamis, in 480 B.C, and at the Battle of Platea in 479. References: Raimondi, Ezio. Il colore eloquente: letteratura e arte barocca. Bologna: Il mulino, c1995. Boffitto, p.83. Albertazzi, 331. Michel II, p.103. Illustrated Bartsch 44 (51) 182 x130 Bartsch 41 (formerly Vol XIX. pt. 1). Bolognese & Emilian Printmakers of the 17th century. Copy Graphische Sammlung Albertina. NUC (one copy): ICN.