SOPRA IL LUSSO by CAPRA, Orazio Claudio - 1791: Discorso.

8vo, pp. 44; occasional dustsoiling, but otherwise clean and fresh; in speckled wrappers over carta rustica; a good copy.

Only edition, rare, of these reflections on luxury by the Vicenza architect Orazio Claudio Capra (1723-1799).

Dividing his work into 27 short numbered sections, Capra discusses the nature of luxury, its opposition to the virtue of moderation, and the ways in which it is inimical to the life of the family. He distinguishes between decorum (good) and vanity (bad), and discusses in several places the role luxury can play in the conduct of marriage, both morally and in the practical matter of the provision of dowries, and their desirability, arguing that a dowry in fact serves only as an incentive 'per alimentare una irragionevole vanità', and speculating about the abolition of the institution. Capra concludes by noting the descent of the Greeks and Romans into luxurious decadence, calling 'fatalissimo Lusso di frivolezze' the destroyer of every well-ruled nation.

Capra published many works on literary and philosophical subjects, but is best known as an architect, designing a number of houses around Vicenza, including the neopalladian Villa Capra Bassani at Sarcedo.

OCLC records just one copy, at the BnF; ICCU adds two copies in Venice (Marciana and San Francesco della Vigna), and the Biblioteca Bertoliana in Vicenza.