[PICCOLOMINI, Alessandro]L'Hortensio, comedia. Venice: heirs of B. Rubini, 1586 ff. 82[2(blank)]. [Bound with]: COSMIO (Filotero). Clarice comedia . . . novamente stampata, e posta in luce. Venice: Do

£2,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

A fine collection of reprints of sixteenth century Italian plays, gathered together in one volume, and possibly sold as a group.The authors mostly have a Sienese connection. I. HORTENSIO. In prose, with a prologue cast as a dialogue. A lengthy play printed in a tiny pearl italic. This is the second edition of a work first published in Siena in 1571, where the first performance had taken place in the presence of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Clubb 31. CNCE 29789. BL has various editions, including this.II. CLARICE. In prose. This play, whose author is surely pseudonymous, has 15 characters of which most are male. The lades are Cassandra,a gentlewoman of Siena, Clarice, who is in fact Ridolfo Cosmio disguised as a serving woman, Corimba, the young daughter of Cassandra and Dania Ruffiana. The work (in prose) makes use of both Tuscan Italian and dialect, the latter particularly in humorous contexts (as Shakespeare). No edition in Clubb. CNCE 14022 (12 copies)III. IL THESORO. A comedy in verse, printed in tiny pearl italic. There is a large cast, of which about half are female roles. The work was dedicated to Don Alfonso da Este, 19 Nov. 1580. Clubb 507. Allaci 761 (1583 edition) CNCE 21897 (many copies)IV.LA EMILIA. A comedy in verse, printed in tiny pearl italic. This is the third edition of a play first published in 1579, and set in Constantinople.It has the original dedication to Giovanni da Legge Cavalliere who was responsible for the building of the permanent theatre in which

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