ALBERTI, Leon Battista. Ecatonphyla. Deiphira di messer Leon Battista Alberto Firentino, ne la quale insegna amare temperatamente, & ne fa divenire, o piu dotti ad amare, o piu prudenti a fuggir amore, novamente stampata.

Octavo (148×98mm), two works bound together. I: [24] leaves, with a woodcut of an elderly woman and three young girls on the opening page and four woodcut initials. Collation: a–f4. II: [1], 10–23, [1] leaves, title-page within a woodcut architectural frame, printer's device on the last leaf. Brown morocco binding signed Bauzonnet-Trautz, triple gilt fillet border on covers, gilt-tooled spine in compartments with title and year, inner dentelles gilt. Vellum endleaves, gilt edges. Manuscript annotations in the first work, occasional spotting; overall a fine copy from the library of Antoine-Augustin Renouard (ex-libris).

First illustrated edition of the Ecatonphyla bound with the sixth edition of the Deiphira, two early works in Italian by Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472). Their dates of composition are uncertain, with both works probably written in the late 1430s or early 1440s. Both were first printed in Padua in 1471. The first work is a monologue set during the interlude of a theatre play: an elderly woman, Ecatonphyla ('loved by one hundred'), instructs the younger women in the audience on the qualities of the perfect man. Her personal experience serves as an example for her listeners, who must avoid her past mistakes to find the ideal lover, conquer him and build a lasting relationship. A summary of her speech can be found in the following passage: "Love then, maidens, the virtuous and modest men of letters, and live happily, honoured in sweet and perpetual love." The perfect lover is therefore the humanist scholar, such as Alberti himself. A scarce incunable edition, with only seven copies in libraries outside of Europe (ISTC). In the dialogue Deiphira, Filarco consoles the desperate Pallimacro, who fell in love with the eponymous woman, advising him on how one must love to avoid suffering. However, the dialogue does not reach a positive conclusion: Pallimacro can find no solution other than exile, as he has no hope of ever being reciprocated. USTC reports only two copies of this edition in institutions outside of Italy. Leon Battista Alberti was arguably the most influential Renaissance architect, and a prolific writer on painting, sculpture, architecture, mathematics, law and more, in both Latin and Italian. His early writings on love, heavily influenced by Ovid, Propertius and other Latin elegiac poets, have traditionally been neglected, but recent studies have recognised their originality. Works such as the Ecatonphyla and the Deiphira are far from conventional, and their underlying themes are the awareness of the great suffering that can come from love and the belief that a man of letters must necessarily overcome his amorous passions to achieve serenity.

I: BMC V, 465; Brunet I, 131; ISTC ia00214000; Goff A214; GW 00578; Hain 421; USTC 998095; Walsh 2372. II: BMSTC Italian p. 15; EDIT16 CNCE 714