ANGELITA Gio Francesco I pomi d'oro, dove si contengono due lettioni de'fichi l'una, e de' melloni l'altra. Nelle quali non solo si scorgono le lor lodi, e le loro eccellenze, ma si scoprono molti segreti per usarli, e per cultivarli...Aggiuntavi una lettione della lumaca ...
Recanati, appresso Antonio Braida, 1607 4to: engraved title-page, full-page portrait, nice woodcut initials and seventeen etchings in the text. Contemporary limp vellum gilt with two rules, central vase tool, the same tool at inner angles; edges gilt. Portion of lower fore-edge worn, ties lacking, some light browning in places. An extremely nice copy in its first binding. Only edition of a fascinating work on figs, melons and snails. In the first sections the author gives many details on the cultivation of figs and melons, the different types grown in various countries, harvesting and preparation and their uses in gastronomy and medicine. There is as well a wealth of anecdotes, legends and proverbs on the three subjects. In this deliberate mixing of fact and fiction the work is typical of the alliance between the Accademie and mock-scholarly comedy. The title-page includes the qualifying sentence:- Opera non meno ripiena di Dottrina che di piacere. Angelita was Il Roco in the Accademia de' Disuguali of Recanati and he opens his dissertation by assuring his fellow-academicians that he intends to bring solace to spirits wearied by serious matters. The illustrations make up in imagination what they lack in execution. A headpiece, for example shows the full panoply of the hunt with every sort of weapon being aimed at the central victim - a snail. Paleari 513; Westbury p.10; Bing 69; Fumagalli p.322. Only the Harvard copy noted in NUC.
£6200
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