Poemetti filosofici.
Modena: Eredi di Bartolomeo Soliani, 1772. First edition. Wood-engraved head- and tail-pieces. A few wormholes, front cover a little rubbed. Occasional light foxing, but overall a very good, clean copy. With early twentieth-century stamp Fratelli Campori on front free endpaper. Contemporary speckled sheep over speckled boards, gilt flat spine with reddish-brown paste-paper lettering piece. Octavo. 91, [3] pp. Item #15534
Giovanni Battista Vicini (1709-1782), poet and translator, was called by Baretti "uno dei magni poetastri d'Italia." He produced several collections of poems, both sacred and secular. He worked at the Ducal court in Modena and dedicated this work to Ipolito Giuliano Bellincini-Bagnesi, chamberlain to Duke Francesco III. The title indicates that the poems contained here are of a scientific nature. One of the longer poems is on the botany and use of trees, entitled "La favela, ed il canto degli arbori et dei fiori," which is both on the subjects of agriculture and natural history. Another poem, "I colori" deals with Newton's color theory, in particular his diffraction of sunlight with a prism.
OCLC locates only one copy, at the British Library.
Price: $1,250.00