CERATI, Gregorio.

Poetry by the bishop of Piecenza La genesi. Versione di Monsignor D. Gregorio Cerati gia Vescovo di Piacenza.

      Parma, Tipi Bodoniani, 1807.. 8vo. Original boards covered with yellow sprinkled paper; red sprinkled edges. (2), LX, (2), 260, (3) pp.. Original, only and elegant edition of this posthumously published poetical work by the bishop of Piacenza. The book opens with an extensive dedicatory letter by the editor, the bishop's nephew Antonio Cerati to Giambatista Bodoni (p. I-LIX), also containing a description of the life of Gregorio Cerati. Antonio was professor and later president of the University of Parma and therefore Bodoni was hardly in the position that he could refuse to print these poems.Cerati (Parma 1730-Piazenza 1807) who was created bishop of Piacenza by Ferdinando di Bordone in 1783, composed his work on the origin of the world in Italian 'terze rime', at the instigation of the poet Prospero Manara and although the poems were eulogized very much by famous Italian poets as Frugione and A. Mazza, Cerati didn't want to have them printed before his death. Very good copy. De Lama 175; Brooks 1018; Vita Bodoni , p. 175; Giani, Cat ., p. 72, Nr. 180; Bodoni: quand la simplicite devient art (Brussels 2000), Nr. 50; cf.: Bodoni: l'invenzione della semplicita (Parma 1990), p. 171, note 57; Diz. biogr. degli Ital. , 23, p. 666-8.