ALAMANNI, Luigi.

by Luigi Alamanni

£3,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

A beautifully bound copy in top quality morocco of this finely printed edition of Alamanni s didactic poem on agriculture. An Italian statesman and poet, Luigi Alamanni (1495-1556) studied philosophy in Florence and attended gatherings at the Orti Oricellari, a famous meeting place for the Florentine social and intellectual élite and an anti-Medicean circle. Here, he became friends with Machiavelli. In 1522, after participating in an unsuccessful conspiracy against Giulio de' Medici (afterwards Pope Clement VII), he fled to France and became one of the leading poets at the court of King Francis I. La Coltivazione is Alemanni s most celebrated and famous work, dedicated to King Francis I and first published in Paris by Robert Estienne in 1546. Drawing inspiration from Vergil s Georgics, Rucellai s Api (= bees) and Columella s Latin works on agronomy, in this didactic poem Alemanni describes everything concerning cultivation and rustic life. The work is divided into six books and elegantly written in versi sciolti , namely hendecasyllables without rhyme. This poem has preserved a considerable reputation, from the great purity and elegance of the style, as well as from the methodical arrangement and the sagacity of its agricultural precepts (Simonde de Sismondi). The fine red morocco binding is similar in style to the bindings made by the Derome le Jeune (1731-1788, see Bibliotheca Bibliographica Breslaueriana n. 17) and Louis Doceur (d. 1769; see Louis Doceur 1746 on Cyclopaedi

• Binding: Hardcover

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