L'Ammiraglio delle indie or sia gesta di Cristoforo Colombo scuopritor dell'America. Poema di Ormidlo Emeressio pastor Arcade. Adornato con Figure in Rame

Large 8vo.  250 x 180 mm., [10 x 7 inches].  xiv, [2], 236 pp.  Illustrated with a title-page vignette and 10 full-page engraved plates by Pietro Sardi after designs by Domenico Pasquali.  Later Italian decorated paper wrappers.  Some dust marks to margins of the title-page, preliminary leaves a bit soiled, wrappers with a few tears to the edges, otherwise a very good copy.

Second edition, originally published in 1759, both editions rare.  This 1761 editions differs from the first only by the title-page and the conjugate leaf 8 which is the register.  A comparison of the copy digitized by the Hathi Trust is the same setting of type and placement of the illustrations, so it must be assumed that these are the sheets from the first edition with an added new title-page and register.

This appears to be Querini's only epic poem, written and formatted in the style of 16th century.  It contains ten chapters, each introduced by a "Argomento", followed by eight line stanza's of poetry, each introduced by a full-page engraving.  The engravings, reflecting Querini's sensitive rendering of Columbus's arrival and conquest of the Americas, show the Admiral interacting with the natives, negotiating with tribal leaders, ordaining native novitiates, and finally a reaction and battle between the forces of Spain and the indigenist people.

Columbus arrives to revere the Spanish

Since it has the Ocean Occidental Uncovered,

And it passed to Barcelona to its Sovereigns

Where the previous rumor of Fama is uncertain.

Presents Slaves, and Strange Animals,

And Gold, and Pearls, and other valuable things

The King who thinks only of honoring him,

he embraces him and praises him, and keeps him at table with him.

The  Florentine bookseller Leonardo Lapiccirella writes that Querini's books is an  "interesting work, not only for the iconographic part but also for the subject; it is in fact an up poem about Christopher Columbe"  (translation mine).

Alvise Querini (1758 - 1834) a member of the noble family that traces it lineage back to the 12 century.  In his age he was a member of the aristocratic class that favored progressive changes to the laws and more equal rights for women.  "He was the last ambassador of the Republic of Venice in France from 1795 to 1797, he held important positions under the initial Austrian domination, but also in Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy and then in the Lombardo-Veneto kingdom."

Sabin Dictionary of Books Relating to America, 22416.  Morazoni, Il Libro Illustrato Veneziano della Settecento, 246.  Leonardo Lapiccirella, Libri Ilustrati Venezinai dell XVIII Secolo.  Catalogo 3 no. 216.  Walters Art Museum On Line Collection.  Vitorio Mandelli, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 86.  NUC cites a copy at New York Public Library for the 1761 edition.  This edition not cited in OCLC but for the 1759 editions locations include only U Pennsylvania and the American Antiquarian Society.; Sabin adds Boston Athenaeum and John Carter Brown.