Rare books, manuscripts and ephemera from five centuries

An Enlightenment wedding gift 

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[MONTESQUIEU, Charles Secondat, Baron de]. IL TEMPIO DI GNIDO del signor di Montesquieu trasportato in versi Italiani per occasione delle solenni nozze di S.E. il signor co. Alessandro Barziza con S.E. la signora Andriana Berlendis. In Padova: nella stamperia Penada, MDCCLXXI [1771]. £685

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FIRST EDITION OF THIS TRANSLATION. 4to, pp. viii, 75, [1] blank; engraved arms on title, head- and tailpieces, and initials; some light marginal staining and spotting in places, but otherwise clean and crisp; ownership inscription “Desmaisons 1840” on front free endpaper; in contemporary stiff vellum, boards with decorative gilt borders, spine gilt; gilt endpapers; some wear to extemities and staining to boards (especially lower board).

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Sole edition of this very rare Italian verse translation of Le Temple de Gnide, produced and printed to commemorate the marriage of Conte Alessandro Barziza and Andriana Berlendis in 1771.

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The anonymous translator, in his preface, articulates why Le Temple de Gnide is so appropriate for a wedding between illustrious people (’sarà mai sempre letta con piacere e diletto da chiunque abbia la minima sensibilità di animo, e dilicatezza di sentimento, ed il minimo genio per la Poesia, non che da chiunque si trovi in quella situazione di cuore, in cui trovar debbonsi presentamenti codesti Eccellentissimi Sposi...’). Others also acted on this, with Clemente Filomarino, for instance, translating parts of Montesquieu’s work for weddings in Rome in 1778 and Ferrara in 1782. As far as the translation itself, goes, the translator has opted to adapt the original French prose into Italian verse, although ‘whatever new ornament I was providing for this work, I have never allowed myself to go beyond the limits of fidelity and precision necessary in a translator’.

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This is one of at least four publications celebrating the Barziza/Berlindis union cited by Pinto, with others printed in Venice and Brescia, reflecting the status of the Barziza family, merchants long established in Venice but of Bergamo origin. 

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Pinto, Nuptialia 1505; not in OCLC or SBN. 

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