Opere.

Pisa: Niccolò Capurro, 1816. Very Good. 15cm; 6 volumes. Engraved frontispiece portrait and one folding plate. Mixed set: volumes 1-5 untrimmed, unsophisticated copy in publisher's wraps, with paper labels on spines. Volume 6 (Rime) matched from a different set, in blue marbled boards with gilded leather spine. Spine ends of volumes 1-5 shelf worn with some loss. Reference: Gamba 463, note; Seroni, "Firenzuola," # 15.

The works of the proto-libertine who praised women and human sexuality in the Tuscan vernacular (sex talk had been reserved to Latin, a language rarely taught to women), and who incidentally helped forge Italian literary conventions. The text includes the author's imitations of Aesop ("Discorsi degli animali"), his "Ragionamenti amorose" (Discourses on love, styled after Boccaccio's Decameron), the dialogue On the Beauty of Women ("Delle bellezze delle donne," with illustrations), the epistle in praise of women, the two comedies "La Trinuzia" (the Triple Marriage) and "I Lucidi," the Macchiavellian "Novelle," and his Italian translation of the Golden Ass of Apuleius. Firenzuola was an important influence in promoting the equality of women in the arts: "Firenzuola's dialogue emphasizes the equality of women, the reciprocity of love, and the value of sexuality independent of its reproductive function. In doing so, he provides us with important insights into contemporary values" (J. Murray, Agnolo Firenzuolo on Female Sexuality and Woman's Equality, in: "Sixteenth Century Journal", 22, 1991, pp. 207, 213).