ATANAGI, Dionigi. Rime di diversi nobilissimi, et eccellentissimi autori, in morte della Signora Irene delle Signore di Spilimbergo. Alle quali si sono aggiunti versi latini di diversi egregij poeti, in morte della medesima signora.

Octavo (146×92mm), 2 parts in one volume. I: 12 leaves, 179, [5] pages; II: 57, [7] pages, with title Diversorum praestantium poetarum carmina in obitu Irenes Spilimbergiae. Woodcut printer's device on both title-pages and on last leaf, five historiated initials. Brown morocco binding by Francis Bedford, covers with double gilt border of French fillet, gilt cornerpieces, spine gilt in compartments with title and year, gilt edges. Some browning on the first title-page, a small hole in the outer white margin of leaf b8. Ex-libris on front paste-down; handwritten note about Torquato Tasso on final endleaf. A very good copy.

First edition. A collection of poetry in tribute to the Venetian noble lady Irene di Spilimbergo, featuring the first ever verses in print by Torquato Tasso. Irene was born in 1538 and received a classical education between Spilimbergo, near Udine, and Venice, where she moved at the age of sixteen; there, she came into contact with the city's foremost artists and noblemen, and even aroused the admiration of Titian for her painting ability. However, none of her artistic or poetic work has survived and she is almost entirely known through the publication of this poetic collection, which was printed two years after her untimely death at the age of 21 from an unidentified illness. The editor, Dionigi Atanagi (c. 1504–1573), was born in Urbino and lived in Rome for 25 years, working as a secretary at the Roman Curia and becoming acquainted with its literary circles. He eventually moved to Venice in 1559, where he worked as an editor for various printers and wrote poetry. While Atanagi has traditionally been identified as the author of this collection, it is now accepted that the central role in its conception was played by Udinese patrician Giorgio Gradenigo (1522–1600), who is remembered in several poems for his love for Irene: it was Gradenigo who enlisted the help of his circle of noblemen and humanists to write elegies and love poems in her memory. Many of these patrician men of letters were closely associated with the Accademia Veneziana, also called the Accademia della Fama, a Venetian cultural institution that had recently been shut down due to the financial difficulties of its founder and patron, Federico Badoer: the presence of poets, scholars and artists coming from the Accademia's ranks in this collection signifies the continuation of its cultural activity despite its closure. The volume collects a total of 279 poems in Italian, in the first part, and 102 in Latin, in the second part, often modelled on the works of Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius and Ovid. The most important authors include Bernardo Tasso, Torquato Tasso, Luca Contile, Lodovico Dolce, Titian, Benedetto Varchi, Girolamo Muzio and Laura Terracina. Notably, the collection marks the first appearance in print of verses by Torquato Tasso, and the only appearance in print of verses attributed to Titian.

BMSTC Italian, p. 60; Cicognara 1035; EDIT16 CNCE 37416; USTC 804170; Corsaro, Antonio. "Dionigi Atanagi e la silloge per Irene di Spilimbergo. (Intorno alla formazione del giovane Tasso)." Italica 75, no. 1 (1998): 41–61.