Giovanni Boccaccio, Libro delle Donne Illustri, Italian, Vellum, Rare, 1558

Libro Di M. Gio Boccaccio Delle Donne Illustri
Tradotto Per Messer Giuseppe Betussi.
Con Una Additione Fatta,
Dal Medesimo Delle Donne Famose Dal Tipo Di M. Giovanni Fino à I Giorni Nostri
& Alcune Altre State Per Inanzi,
Con La Vita Del Boccaccio, & La Tavola Di Tutte L'historie, & Cose Principali
Che Nell'opra Si Contengono.
All'illustriss. S. Camilla Pallauicina Marchese Di Corte Maggiore.
In Vineggia M D LVIII

RARE, ITALIAN LANGUAGE
ILLUSTRATED

Publisher:
Copyright: 1558

--CONDITION--
This book is in good condition for its age. Bound in original vellum. 8vo. The binding is worn along edges and corners with significant signs of shelf wear and moisture stains. The lower back corner of the binding toward the spine has been shorn off, but the pages are fine. The hinges are still tightly stitched and endpapers are present. Bookseller notes in pencil in the prelims with various stamps. The text is in Italian with a printed device on the frontispice. Beautiful capital letters adorn the typography of this book. The text block is toned with evidence of moisture/water stains in some parts. Published in 1558. This extremely rare and hard-to-find book has had a long and illustrious journey through time and it shows. Please take a look at the pictures to ascertain the condition and state of this book. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask. 216 pages.

--ABOUT THIS ITEM--

Item Dimensions: 6.0 inches x 4.5 inches

Boccaccio's On Famous Women (De claris mulieribus) is a remarkable work that contains the lives of one hundred and six women in myth and history, ranging from Eve to Boccaccio's contemporary, Queen Giovanna I of Naples. It is the first collection of women's biographies ever written. Boccaccio composed it at Certaldo in 1361-62 and revised it in various stages to the end of his life in 1375. He dedicated it to Andrea Acciaiuoli, countess of Altavilla in the kingdom of Naples and sister of Niccolò Acciaiuoli, the grand seneschal of Queen Giovanna I. In his preface, the author states that the biographies of illustrious men had been written often by a number of excellent writers, and he cited his hero Petrarch's Lives of Famous Men (De viris illustribus) as an example. No one, however, had ever done the same for women. Boccaccio, therefore, presents a wide variety of women from antiquity to his own time, offering their lives as both moral exemplar and entertaining reading. On Famous Women is the earliest source of women's biography in the West and has had a long and distinguished publication career and literary influence.

LOC LIB

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