THE FIRST COMPLETE HISTORY OF ITALIAN LITERATURE

TIRABOSCHI, GIROLAMO. Storia della letteratura italiana del cavaliere abate Girolamo Tiraboschi consigliere di S. A. S. il Signor Duca di Modena presidente della ducal biblioteca e della galleria delle medaglie, e professore onorario nella Università della stessa città. Prima edizione veneta, dopo la seconda di Modena riveduta, corretta ed accresciuta dall’Autore. In Venezia (Venice), (s. t.), 1795.

16 large 8vo volumes, original printer’s paperboards with handwritten paper label at spine, deckle edges, partially uncut, pp. XXX, 400 to first volume, pp. XXXIV, 488 to the second volume, pp. xlviii, 452 to the third volume, pp. XII, 488 to the fourth volume, pp. XXVIII, 320 to the fifth volume, pp. VIII, from 321 to 632 to the sixth volume, pp. XII, 406, [2, blank] to the seventh volume, pp. VIII, from 409 to 764 to the eighth volume, pp. VIII, from 765 to 1128 to the nineth, pp. XII, 383, [1, blank] to the tenth volume, pp. VIII, from 385 to 729, [3, blank] to the eleventh volume, pp. VIII, from 783 (mistake in pagination, it should have restarted from 733) to 1287, [3, blank] to the twelfth volume, pp. VIII, from 1291 to 1684, [3, blank] to the thirteenth volume, pp. xvi, 339, [1, blank] to the fourteenth volume, pp. xx, from 341 to 630, [2, blank] to the fifteenth volume, pp. xxxix, [1, blank], 318, [2, blank] to the sixteenth volume.
Copper plated portrait of the author to the half-title page with protective. Text in Italian.

First Venetian edition of Tiraboschi’s huge work on the «History of Italian literature», the first ever printed on the subject: collecting information about the development of letters and sciences on the Italic ground, Tiraboschi provides Italy with a common cultural identity half a century before its actual political union.

This imprint follows the second Modena enlarged edition, and was corrected by the author.

Tiraboschi’s conception of literature is actually wider than ours, meaning all the texts written in Italy not only by the the literates, but also by scientists, musicians and doctors: therefore, this work represents the first complete historiography of Italian culture, attesting the origins and the development of all sciences in Italy. At the base of this operation there are different aims: in the first place, identifying Italian cultural identity through some indication of continuity since the Etruscan to the author’s time, praising and defending if possible the fruits deriving from it. Secondly, analysing the Italian production and organizing it according to phases and currents of thought, in the hope that the reasons of the development and the fading of literary trends and scientific ideas could be found.

CONTENT:
The work is divided in 8 parts and a table of contents, the whole parted in 16 volumes; the eight parts follow a chronological order and, within them, the history of all sciences as well as of Italian academies, libraries and typographies is described. This is the topics’ order:

•Vol. 1: Che comprende la Storia della Letteratura degli Etruschi, e de’ popoli della Magna Grecia, e dell’antica Sicilia, e de’ Romani fino alla morte d’Augusto;
•Vol. 2: Dalla morte di Augusto fino alla caduta dell’Impero Occidentale;
•Vol. 3: Dalla rovina dell’Impero Occidentale fino all'anno 1183;
•Vol. 4: Dall’anno 1183. fino all'anno 1300;
•Vol. 5: Dall’anno 1300. fino all'anno 1400 - Parte prima;
•Vol. 6: Dall’anno 1300. fino all'anno 1400 - Parte seconda;
•Vol. 7: Dall’anno 1400. fino all'anno 1500 - Parte prima;
•Vol. 8 : Dall’anno 1400. fino all'anno 1500 - Parte seconda;
•Vol. 9 : Dall’anno 1400. fino all'anno 1500 - Parte terza;
•Vol. 10 Dall’anno 1500. all'anno 1600 - Parte prima;
•Vol. 11: Dall’anno 1500. all'anno 1600 - Parte seconda;
•Vol. 12: Dall’anno 1500. all'anno 1600 - Parte terza;
•Vol. 13: Dall’anno 1500. all'anno 1600 - Parte quarta;
•Vol. 14: Dall’anno 1600. all'anno 1700 - Parte prima;
•Vol. 15: Dall’anno 1600. all'anno 1700 - Parte seconda;
•Vol. 16: Indice generale.

GIROLAMO TIRABOSCHI (1731-1794), an Italian literature historian was born in Bergamo, and entered the Jesuits’s order in 1746. He spent many years at the Brera college in Milano as teacher of rhetoric and librarian, task that he undertook willingly and that led him to organize the fund of the future National Braidense Library. In 1770, Francis III duke of Modena appointed him librarian of the Estense library, assignment held before him by Francesco Antonio Zaccaria and Ludovico Antonio Muratori. Tiraboschi’s main work, that gained him celebrity, was the Storia della letteratura italiana, written in somewhat more than a decade since he arrived to Modena, printed there for the first time (9 voll., 1772-82), and then expanded and reprinted under the author’s control (16 voll., 1787-94). Tiraboschi also wrote: Biblioteca modenese (1781-86), Storia dell'augusta abbazia di S. Silvestro di Nonantola (1784-89), Memorie storiche modenesi (1793-95) and a number of minor works; furthermore, he directed the Nuovo giornale de' letterati d'Italia (1773-90) and prepared the Dizionario topografico-storico degli stati estensi (1824-25).

PROVENANCE: Among the first volume’s leaves, a visit card was found with the name Gio. Batta Salsilliprinted in black ink, while at the end of the fourth, there is a tissue leaf handwritten in German on both sides, just on the half part of the page.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES: Brunet, V, 863; Graesse, VII, 162.

Some minor stains to the margins and on some text page; overall, very good copy in its original paperboards binding, untrimmed and partially uncut.