Folger-specific note
Bound with bibs 358055 and 358056 Purchase made possible by The Colt Acquisitions Fund. Ordered from Chartaphilus - Libri antichi e rari D9344, 2019-09-10, email quote. From dealer's description: "Bound together: Della Porta Giovan Battista (Vico Equense, 1535 - Napoli, 1615), Lo Astrologo comedia nuova, Venezia, Appresso Pietro Ciera, 1606 ; [bound with:] Della Porta Giovan Battista (Vico Equense, 1535 - Napoli, 1615), La Turca comedia nuova, Venezia, Appresso Pietro Ciera, 1606 ; [bound with:] Della Porta Giovan Battista (Vico Equense, 1535 - Napoli, 1615), La Sorella comedia nuova, Venezia, Appresso Giovanni Alberti, 1607. Three texts in volume 12° (130x70mm); ff. [2], 64; [2], 75, [1, blank]; pp. [4], 139, [1]; some scattered soiling and browning, blank outer margin of E1-2 in first work trimmed, not affecting text; overall very good copies, bound in contemporary vellum, inner upper joint cracked but holding, signs of bookplate removed to front pastedown; contemporary ownership inscription to title of first work «di Pultio Sb.»; eighteenth-century ownership inscription of «Antonio Bonino?», cleric, to front endpaper. A sammelband of comedies by the renowned polymath Giovan Battista Della Porta, including the first editions of Lo Astrologo and La Turca, and the second edition of La Sorella (first: Naples, 1604). Although Della Porta is mostly known for his works on alchemy, astrology, mathematics, philosophy, meteorology, distillation and engineering, he was also a prolific playwright. Seventeen of his theatrical works survive, from a total of around 29, of which 14 are comedies. Unlike many of his contemporaries, writing plays in the Commedia dell'arte form, Della Porta preferred the Commedia erudita, a more scholarly theatrical form which would follow scripts, sometimes rather complicated, inspired especially by Roman comedies. 'Astrologo and Turca are undeniably distinct from the rest in being primarily satirical, not only of universal types but also of abuses immediate to late sixteenth- century Naples ... The sources from which Astrologo and Turca derived their unusual flavour were contemporary life and Della Porta's own experiences. His wide acquaintance with both charlatans and serious astrologers like himself (before his forced recantation) is the basis of the caricature he named Albumazar [who is said to be feeding on 'liqueur of planets, dew of fixed stars, distillation of destinies, quintessence of fates, juice of the skies'] ... The first object of satire in Astrologo, of course, is the complex of occult arts on which swarms of Renaissance confidence men traded for their livelihood. It is significant that Della Porta's attack is not only on charlatanism but also on astrology, necromancy, and methods of magic and divination in general ... When the scattered facts about Della Porta's life are put together and examined, it seems clear that the attack was a necessary recantation of his former beliefs, wrung from him by the Holy Office's command to disband his academy [the Accademia dei Segreti, founded by Della Porta to investigate and discuss the secrets of nature, was suppressed by the Roman Inquisition in 1578 for its alleged dealings with the Occult], cease his occult practices, and write a comedy. Astrologo was most likely offered as the first proof of his reformation' (Louise George Clubb, Giambattista Della Porta, Dramatist, Princeton University Press, 1965, pp. 171-183)."
