BARBIERI, Giovanni Maria, ed. FINO, Alemanio

£1,950 · Offered by Sokol Books

Rare second edition of Barbieri s (1519-74) Italian prose rendering of the Niccolò da Casola s C14th Franco-Italian poem by the same name. Barbieri s version was first published Ferrara 1568, this Venice edition by an obscure Italian author, Alemanio Fino, with summaries of each book and a glossary explaining difficult Italian words to the rear. The Bolognese humanist Casola s poem was based on a prose version from the French romance tradition, the Estoire d Atile en Ytaire, which was likely derived from earlier Latin sources. In Barbieri s preface, which is preserved in this edition, he describes manuscript sources found in the archives of the Este family - dukes of Ferrara and patrons of both Barbieri and da Casola - acknowledging da Casola but also harking back to an almost certainly fictitious Latin source, a contemporary account of the Hunnic invasion and sack of Aquileia in 452 AD by Tomaso d Aquileia, secretary to the C5th Nicetas, Archbishop of the city. Da Casola s poem begins with a knights tournament, staged by King Ostrubal of Hungary to find a husband suitable for his daughter. However, just before she is due to marry the victor, against her wishes, she is impregnated by a greyhound that shares her bed, and gives birth to Attila, half-dog and half-man. Barbieri confirms that Attila had a canine appearance and ferocity, but discounts da Casola s romantic version of his birth, writing that Attila was simply a noble scion of the Huns who learned his feral ways

• Binding: Hardcover

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