Helicon Iacobi La Vezoli Ferrariensis, canonici regularis Diui Augustini ... : ad illustrissimum d. Dominum Herculem Estensem, eius nominis Secundum, Ferrariae Principe[m] opt.
1535
Items
Details
Title
Helicon Iacobi La Vezoli Ferrariensis, canonici regularis Diui Augustini ... : ad illustrissimum d. Dominum Herculem Estensem, eius nominis Secundum, Ferrariae Principe[m] opt.
Created/published
Impressum Ferrariae : Per Franciscum Rubeum Valentinum, mense Aprili, 1535.
Description
[24] p. (p. [24] blank) ; 23 cm (4to)
Associated name
Lavezzoli, Giacomo, 1510-1585, author.
Note
Signatures: A-C⁴.
Imprint from colophon (with printer's device, not in Vaccaro).
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Imprint from colophon (with printer's device, not in Vaccaro).
This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance.
Place of creation/publication
Italy.
Item Details
Call number
FAST ACC 271768 (quarto)
Folger-specific note
From dealer's description: "LAVEZZOLI LEBETI, Giacomo. Helicon. Jacobi Lavezoli Ferrariensis Canonici Regularis Divi Augustini, Ordinis Servatoris ad Illustrissimum D. Dominum Herculem Estensem euis nominis secundem, Ferrariae Principē opt. Colophon: Ferrara: Francesco Rossi, April 1535. (24) pp, signed AC4. With woodcut typographical ornament on title-page and printer's emblem on recto of final leaf. Bound in 19th C paper boards with cloth spine. Lengthy inscription on title-page in an early hand (see below). Spine a little worn and chipped, but holding perfectly; pages generally clean. A very fresh and broad-margined copy, unwashed; worming to edge of lower blank margin throughout, nowhere near to the text. EUR 2.500 / $2650 Extremely rare sole edition of this Neolatin poem by a young Ferrarese Humanist, Giacomo Lavezzoli Lebeti (1510-1585). Ostensibly written as a panegyric on the majesty of Mount Helicon in Greek mythology, the true object of Lavezzoli's praise was of course the might of the ruling Este family of Ferrara, to whom the work is dedicated. Although the title-page speaks of the poem's dedication to the current Duke of Este, Ercolo II (ruled 1534-1559), it is interesting to note that the final leaf of text contains a further epigram by Lavezzoli delivered at the funeral of Alfonso d'Este, his immediate predecessor. Further prefatory poems shed some light on Lavezzoli's circle: on the verso of the title-page we find a poem 'to the reader' from the great Ferrarese teacher of Greek, Marcantonio Antimacho (1473-1552); as well as a laudatory poem by a certain Giovanni Leone of Vercelli. One suspects that both Lavezzoli, aged 25 at the time of writing, and Leone were sometime-pupils of Antimacho. Humanism in Ferrara flourished under the patronage of the Estes, whose rule would come to an end in the late 16th century. Antimacho, for example, had spent five years in Greece before being drawn to the court at Ferrara. Very little seems to be known of Giacomo Lavezzoli Lebeti: an Augustinian Canon Regular, he is described in biographical notices as a 'theologian, philosopher, letterato and Graecist, devoted to Latin poetry'. The given date of his birth is likely guesswork, but the present poem was undoubtedly printed when he was very young; he died in 1585. A collected volume of his poetry came out near the end of his life, in 1583. The present work is also an early example of the Ferrarese press of Francesco Rossi of Valenza, who appears to have begun printing only in the late 1520s. The colophon on the final leaf depicts two snakes, with a hand holding a pair of shears reaching down from Heaven, and the motto “Dilex isti Malitia sur Benignitatem”." Purchase made possible by The Colt Acquisitions Fund.
Folger accession
271768