Contra poetas impudice loquentes carmen. De suorum temporum calamitatibus by MANTUANUS SPAGNUOLI, Baptista - 1489

Bologna, Rome: Franciscus Plato de Benedictis for B. Hector, 1489. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. 1. April 1489. 64 unnumbered leaves. Signatures: a4 b-c8 d-i6 k8. 25 lines, type 1:113R. Colophon on A4v ('Romae die. XX octobris M.cccc.lxxxvii') and on K8r. 4to (195 x 136 mm). Bound in 18th-centruy full vellum, spine with gilt-lettered morocco label (light spotting and browning of vellum), blue-dyed edges. Occasional neat contemporary ink marginalia. Text quite crisp and clean with only very little even browning, short tear at blank inner margin of first leaf. A fine, unstained and wide-margined copy. ---- Hain 2386; GW-3246; Goff B89; IGI 1197; ISTC ib00089000; BMC VI 823 - FIRST EDITION, exceptionally rare. The Carmelite monk Baptista Mantuanus (became general of the order in 1513) was one of the most important and most prolific of the Renaissance poets. Vergil was his favorite model, and a monument in Mantua represents these two native poets. His works were read in all the schools of Europe and are a veritable source for the history of civilization during the Renaissance. Shakespeare had to learn him by heart at school (see Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, Sc. 2.) For the importance and the influence which the author exercised upon contemporary Latin poetry, see Ellinger. Geschichte der Neulateinischen Literatur I, p.103 ff. - Visit our website for additional images and information.