Rime e Prose.

Firenze, per Gaetano Cambiagi stampatore granducale, 1792. 4to. (1 blank leaf). 2 leaves. 236 pages. Contemporary half-calf, adorned flat spine (head of spine restored). First Collected Edition, largely original, of the author's works where we find an important biographical note on James Cook and his travels, entitled "Elogio del capitano Giacomo Cook" (pp.121-156). This dissertation, read before the Royal Academy of Florence, of which the author was a member, had been published separately in a bilingual Italian-English edition in 1785. It is joined to other occasional pieces in verse and prose discourse on various interesting subjects ("Sull'Occhio e sulla vista" pp.190-206 with references to Newton, "Delle relazioni dei sensi" pp.207-222, "De Italorum meritis in anatome" pp.223-236, etc.), The present edition, printed on strong paper, was probably printed in small numbers and is even rarer than the first edition of 1785. Worldcat lists only five copies (compared to eighteen copies for the separate edition) and the Italian union catalogue lists only three copies, all preserved in the Florence library (compared to fifteen copies of the other edition, spread over fourteen different collections). Some dirt and traces of manipulation. Restorations on the spine of the binding. Good copy. Kroepelien, Biblioteca Polynesiana, 487. Hawaïan National Bibliography, I, 99: "An elegy on Cook's life and three voyages, presented in a florid style and 'publicly recited before the Royal Academy of Florence'. Gianetti's account of the Third Voyage begins on page 61. On page 71 there is a reference to the discovery of Hawaii. Comments on his return to Hawaii in 1778 and his death at Kealakekua occur on pages 73-87".