ARETINO, Pietro; CARO, Annibale. La prima [seconda] parte de ragionamenti. Commento di ser Agresto da Ficaruolo, sopra la prima ficata del padre Siceo. Con la diceria de nasi.

Octavo (148×105mm), 3 parts in one volume. I: [5] leaves, 198 pages; II: [3] leaves, 339 [i.e. 340] pages; III: 118 pages. Several historiated initials and a small engraving on FF3v. Late nineteenth-century French green morocco binding, covers with double panel of gilt lines, spine in compartments decorated and lettered in gilt; gilt edges, marbled endpapers. Armorial ex- libris on front paste-down. A few spots; overall a good copy.

A rare, clandestine edition of Pietro Aretino (1492–1556), the major Renaissance author of erotic literature. A humanist, playwright and poet, he was active between the Roman court, Mantua and Venice, earning a reputation among his contemporaries for his bold satirical and polemical works directed towards the powers at the time. His scandalous and almost pornographic Ragionamenti was first printed in Venice in 1534–36 and was soon censored, as were all of Aretino's other writings, but it later circulated through the surreptitious London editions printed by John Wolfe in the 1580s, as well as their close continental reprints. Since the 1580s, Wolfe had become known for printing several editions of "popular and well-known Italian works which could not be reprinted by Italian printers (as they normally would have been) because of their appearance in the newly-established Roman Catholic Index Librorum Prohibitorum" (Woodfield, p. 8). The publication of works by Niccolò Machiavelli and Pietro Aretino, for example, was prohibited in Italy and any other Catholic country, yet there was a continuous demand for these books, which was likely even stimulated by the papal ban itself. Wolfe had already gained experience in the printing of Italian books while working in Florence in the 1570s and thus was able to cater to both the foreign market and English readers interested in Italian literature. His first venture was Aretino's La prima parte de Ragionamenti, in late 1584. The present edition is among the continental reprints that appeared following the great success of Wolfe's activity, when publishers seemed to be able to circumvent the effects of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Woodfield describes it as follows: "It was printed on the Continent as a double volume, almost certainly in 1651. At the bottom of N8v there is printed the motto: "MediCata RelaboR." The letters which are in larger capitals seem to be a fashion of indicating the date MDCLI, which is probably the year when this edition was printed." It is also described as a close reprint of another early seventeenth-century continental, likely from Amsterdam, edition, which was itself a reprint of a late sixteenth-century London edition. In EDIT16, however, it is reported that this edition should date to 1649. The Ragionamenti parodies Pietro Bembo's Asolani and the Platonic dialogue genre more broadly, a popular literary form in the early XVI century. It is divided into two parts. In the first part, two elderly prostitutes, Nanna and Antonia, discuss whether Nanna's daughter, the young Pippa, should live as a nun, a wife or a prostitute, ultimately agreeing that a career as a prostitute is the safest and most honest option. In the second part, Nanna teaches Pippa the skills and secrets of the perfect prostitute and warns her of the dangers of the trade, particularly betrayals by men. It is followed by the Ragionamento del frate Zoppino a Ludovico puttaniere, con la genealogia di tutte le cortigiane romane, a lively satire of Roman society of the time, the Commento di ser Agresto and the Diceria de nasi. Although these last two works are here attributed to Aretino, they were probably written by Annibale Caro (1507–1566), the author of the famous translation of Virgil's Aeneid.

EDIT16 CNCE 26179; Woodfield B-16, B-20.