Lettere del signor cavaliere Battista Guarini nobile ferrarese [...] Da Agostino Michele raccolte et al serenissimo signore il sig. Duca d'Urbino dedicate con il privilegio

[Bound with:] LEONI, Giovanni Battista (1553-1609). Delle lettere familiari [...] parte prima [-seconda]. Con due sermoni spirituali et tre orationi del medesimo autore], di nuovo ristampate et ricorrete [sic]. Venezia, Giovanni Battista Ciotti, 1593.[together with:] IDEM. Oratione […] nella revalescenza dell'illustrissimo et reverendissimo monsignore Gioanni Grimani Patriarca di Aquileia. Venice, Giovanni Battista Ciotti, 1593.

Two works in one volume (216x151 mm). Guarini: [12], 224 pp. Collation: a⁴ b² A-Ee⁴. Printer's device on title page. Leoni (three parts): [4], 95, [1]; [4], 56; [7] leaves. Collation: a⁴ A-M⁸ (M8 is a blank); a⁴ A-O⁴; a-b⁴ (lacking b4, a blank). Printer's devices on the three title pages. Woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces. Contemporary vellum (soiled and rubbed). Paper loss to the outer upper corner of the first four leaves with no loss of text, water stain to the upper margin at the beginning and at the end of the volume, worm track on the outer margin of a few leaves not affecting the text at the beginning of the second work, some browning.

I. Second edition, appeared one year after the first and bearing the same dedication by the editor Agostino Michele to Francesco Maria II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino (dated Venice, September 20, 1593).

“La prima edizione delle Lettere del Guarini, curata da quel letterato di Venezia Agostino Michele di cui Ciotti aveva già pubblicato nel 1592 un Discorso in cui, contra l'opinione di tutti i più illustri scrittori dell'arte poetica, chiaramente si dimostra, come si possono scrivere con molta lode le comedie e le tragedie in prosa, fu pubblicata dal Ciotti nel 1593, con altre edizioni nel 1594, 1595, 1596, 1598, 1600, 1603, 1606 e 1615. Ciotti aveva il monopolio delle Lettere come anche delle Rime” (D.E. Rhodes, Guarini e l'editore Giovanni Battista Ciotti, in: “Rime e lettere di Battista Guarini. Atti del Convegno di Studi Padova, 5-6 Dicembre 2003”, B.M. Da Rif, ed., Alessandria, 2008, p. 339). The collection contains 158 letters dating from June 1565 to August 1593 (nine of which are by other authors: seven are addressed to Guarini and two to other recipients).

Giovanni Battista Guarini was born at Ferrara into a noble family with a history of literary and political achievements dating back over two hundred years. His father, Francesco Guarini was the great-grandson of the early humanist Guarino da Verona (1374-1460), the originator of the family's fortune. He received a humanist education, which he completed at the University of Padua with studies in law and possibly also philosophy.

In 1557 he returned to Ferrara, where he replaced his great-uncle, Alessandro, as a professor of rhetoric and poetics at the Arch-gymnasium. His relationship with the Este family was further consolidated through his marriage to Taddea Bendidio, who was related to the Rossetti and Bentivoglio families, both of which had strong ties with the ducal house of Ferrara.

His first break-through on the literary scene came in 1564, when he was invited by the highly influential Cardinal Scipione Gonzaga to join the Accademia degli Eterei, in Padua, with the name of Costante. An important publication of his poetry ensued a few years later, in 1567, in a collection of rhymes written by the members of the academy that is considered a first-rate sample of Venetian Petrarchism. In the same year Guarini officially took up service at the Estense court, where his duties for Alfonso II entailed a number of burdensome political assignments and diplomatic missions throughout the country (Turin, Venice, Rome, etc.), as well as a three-year stint in Poland (1574-76). A profound reflection on his experience as a chancellor and on the role of the thinker in the service of the State will come only much later, with Il segretario (1594), a moralistic dialogue on the responsibilities of a secretary and the art of letter writing.

In 1575, Guarini was called on to fill the void in high-profile courtly entertainment left by the death of Giovan Battista Nicolucci (better known as il Pigna), a void that became even more noticeable after Tasso's imprisonment at S. Anna four years later. He played a key role in the pursuit of new musico-poetic experimentations in the Ferrarese madrigal tradition.

The early eighties saw a new gain in notoriety for Guarini. He was invited to join the Accademia degli Innominati, in Parma, with the name of Pellegrino, and received an invitation from the Accademia degli Olimpici of Vicenza to be part of the committee designated to choose the featured work at the famous reopening of the Palladian theater in that city. These years also mark the beginning of what will become a leitmotiv in Guarini's biography: namely, his ongoing strife with Alfons d'Este due to unsatisfactory compensation, which eventually led to his dismissal at the end of 1583.

This unexpected turn of events, which brought Guarini back to his beloved Veneto region, proved to be beneficial for his personal enrichment, as well as for his creative vein. His periodic visits to Padua allowed him to meet and befriend some of the most notable members of the intelligentsia of that vibrant city, such as Antonio Querenghi, Lorenzo Pignoria, Jacopo Zabarella, and Antonio Riccoboni. Moreover, he was finally able to attend to the composition of his masterpiece, the Pastor Fido, which he had begun in 1580, but had been unable to finish due to the multiple responsibilities that his employment with the Este entailed. He completed the famous pastoral drama in 1584, while also engaging in an extensive job-hunt that led to a brief stay in Turin in 1585, where he was planning to take up service at the court of Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy.

That, however, did not happen. In fact, Alfonso, who would not tolerate that a subject and former secretary of his work for another prince, finally offered Guarini a job with adequate compensation and prestige. Guarini accepted and went back to serve the Este at the end of 1585. During the following two years, besides attending to his secretarial duties, he also composed the choruses of the Pastor Fido. But the peace with Alfonso was bound to be only temporary. Soon enough, new complaints about his work and, most importantly, the Duke's unsatisfactory management of a dispute Guarini was having with his son, Alessandro, over the administration of his daughter-in-law's dowry, stirred up the old grudges the secretary had with his prince, leading him to abruptly quit his job in 1588. Yet he never really broke his ties with Ferrara.

The following years were characterized by Guarini's efforts to secure a new job with other Italian courts (Mantua, Florence). Such efforts were not particularly successful, and resulted in a short period at the Medicean court from 1599 to 1602, followed by a brief service for Francesco Maria II della Rovere in Urbino. Making up for what must have hardly been a rewarding moment in his professional career, there were finally a few successful attempts at staging the Pastor Fido: the play was performed for the first time in Siena in 1593, then during the carnival of Crema in 1596, and finally, with great pomp, during the visit of the Governor of Milan, Juan Fernàndez de Velasco, in Mantua, on November 22, 1598. These performances transformed what had been a well-known literary work into a real cultural event, thus definitively sealing the fame of the play, as well as that of its author.

Later on Guarini tirelessly worked on three philosophical tracts: Trattato dell'onore, Ragion di Stato, Favorito cortigiano, all of which are unfortunately lost. Also important was the work he conducted in close consultation with the Bolognese Accademia dei Gelati (Guarini was elected prince of this academy in 1611) and the Roman Accademia degli Umoristi, in order to compile a collection of poems that would show the new trends in Italian lyric poetry. Guarini spent his last years embroiled in disputes with contemporary critics and litigation with his children over his estate. He died in Venice in 1612 (cf. Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Roma, 2002, LX, pp. 345-352).

II. First edition of part one and two of Leoni's letters. The first part had appeared alone in 1592. A third part was published alone in 1596. All three parts were first printed together by Giovanni Battista Ciotti in 1600. The first part is dedicated by the author to Pietro Priuli, the second to Paolo, Nicolò, Girolamo, and Sebastiano Contarini.

The first and the second book contain respectively 145 and 48 letters, two of which are addressed to Leoni. The letters are grouped in alphabetical order by the recipient's first name or honorary title and then, for every recipient, in chronological order. The main recipients are Giovanni Mocenigo (38 letters), Girolamo Zeno (26), Giovanni Francesco Secchi (21), and Antonio Calbo (18). The letters are almost all dated between 1571 and 1591.

“Dans l'une comme dans l'autre partie, chaque lettre n'a généralement pas moins d'une page et n'aborde qu'un sujet. Les nouvelles familières personelles (santé, carrière, voyages, souvenirs de jeunesse, amitiés) et les compliments (congratulations, recommandations, consolations) traités assez brièvement alternent avec des thèmes développés en plusieurs pages (la lecture des livres d'Histoire, l'écriture comparé à la parole, les fontaines, l'historique des années saintes, la Fortune, le secrétaire, les aventures burlesques au cours d'un voyage, les peintres, le ‘traslato', la peste à Venise, etc.). Ces lettres s'inscrivent dans une tradition; Leoni se réfère une fois à A. Caro. Son style est caracterisé par une familiarité souriante, un langage image […] mêlé à du latin, par une ou deux comparaisons filées” (J. Basso, Le genre épistolaire en langue italienne (1538-1662). Répertoire chronologique et analytique, Roma & Nancy, 1990, p. 328).

Little is known about the life of Giovanni Battista Leoni. Only through the detailed study of his correspondence, which would deserve a modern edition, it is possible to reconstruct more precisely the main events of his life. Considering the size of his writings and the relationships he had during his career, he stands out as a figure of a certain importance.

Leoni was born in Venice. He mainly was active in Rome and Naples as a secretary to cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Later he entered the service of the cardinal Philippe de Lénoncourt, on whose account he traveled throughout Italy and to Paris, Malta, and Bratislava.

Leoni is the author of comedies (Roselmina, Florinda, Antiloco, etc.), madrigals, theological treatises, historical accounts and essays (Considerationi sopra l'Historia d'Italia di messer Francesco Guicciardini, 1583), and polemical writings (Due discorsi sopra la libertà ecclesiastica, published in 1606, under the pseudonym of Giovanni Simone Sardi, in defense of the ecclesiastical liberty of Venice). In 1593 he was among the founders of the Accademia Veneziana Seconda, which lasted until 1602. Several of his work were published under the academic nickname of Lauro Settizonio (cf. E. Cicogna, Delle inscrizioni veneziane, Venezia, 1842, V, p. 337).