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8° (160x100 mm). Collation: AA4, a-s8, t4. [4], 148 leaves. Italic and roman type. Woodcut printer's device on the title-page and on the verso of the last leaf. Nineteenth-century half-vellum, marbled covers. Spine with title in gilt on red morocco lettering-piece. Red silk bookmark. A very good copy, a few small stains to fols. AA4 and a1. Light foxing in places.The rare first edition of the remarkable collection known as the 'Giuntina di rime antiche', the first anthology in print which contains Dante's canzoniere along with lyrics composed by poets of the Dolce Stil Novo tradition. Edited by Bardo di Antonio Segni, member of a distinguished Florentine family, this anthology is an authentic monument to Italian vernacular poetry. In his prefatory letter, the printer Bernardo Giunta addressed the publication to the Amatori de le toscane rime, i.e., admirers of Tuscan poetry, inviting them to read and study the early vernacular lyric tradition, and Dante's poems above all. The Giuntina di rime antiche is divided into eleven books (not ten, as erroneously stated in the title), and includes the texts of about three hundred poems, most of which had never previously appeared in print. The entries are grouped by metrical form and are almost entirely by Tuscan authors, although works from the Sicilian and Bolognese Schools are also included, with the former being represented by Giacomo da Lentini, Guido delle Colonne, and Pier delle Vigne, to name a few, and the latter by Guido Guinizelli and Onesto degli Onesti, among others. The first four books of this edition are entirely devoted to Dante, and contain – for the first time – his complete poems apart from the Commedia, including the text of Vita Nuova, which was only published in its complete form in 1576. The Giuntina poetical collection is very important from a textual point of view, and played a significant part in the reconstruction of the complex history of Dante's lyrical works. In addition to the fifteen so-called canzoni distese, the texts of which are mainly derived from Giovanni Boccaccio's transcriptions, the editor Bardo di Antonio Segni also attributes to Dante a selection of poems which have come down to us but are not included in the manuscripts. This edition represents the highest achievement in print of the long tradition of Florentine lyric anthologies.Adams T-1213; STC Italian 687; Camerini Annali 206; Pettas 219; Mambelli 995; Gamba 206; Philobiblon, One Thousand Years of Bibliophily, no. 78. Seller Inventory # 0000000008342
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