Bonhams 1793 : PALLAVICINO (FERRANTE) La Rettorica delle puttane composta conforme li precetti di Cipriano. Dedicata alla Università delle cortegiane più celebri, third edition; La Pudicitia schernita, 1673; Il Divortio celeste, cagionato dalle dissolutezze della sposa romana; Il corriero svaligiato; 1671, 4 parts (only) in one vol.

La Rettorica delle puttane composta conforme li precetti di Cipriano. Dedicata alla Università delle cortegiane più celebri, third edition; La Pudicitia schernita, 1673; Il Divortio celeste, cagionato dalle dissolutezze della sposa romana; Il corriero svaligiato; 1671, 4 parts (only) in one vol., titles with woodcut sphere device, later red morocco gilt, extremities rubbed [cf. Willems 1487/1488], 12mo, Villafranca [Amsterdam, Daniel Elzevir]

Sold for £175 inc. premium

Footnotes

La Rettorica delle puttane ("The Rhetoric of Whores"), first published in Geneva in 1642, and written in the form of a dialogue between an aged prostitute and her naive apprentice, was the work which finally sealed the fate of the satyrist and anti-Jesuit Pallavicino. Forced to flee Venice for Bergamo, he managed to complete his other best-known work, Il Divortio celeste, before being persuaded by a papal spy that he should go to France to take up a spurious position being offered by Cardinal Richelieu. As he crossed the papal territory near Avignon, he was betrayed to the authorities and spent fourteen months in prison before being beheaded.

La Rettorica was reprinted in Venice in 1648, but along with Pallavicino's other works, had to wait until the 1660s and 1670s before Daniel Elzevir published further editions in Amsterdam. The present volume seems to comprise the first four works from his Opere scelte of 1673, which is a reprint of the 1671 edition with the addition of a new title-page, La Rettorica and La Pudicitia schernita (the former was also published separately).

Category: Books / Books, Maps and Manuscripts

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