Apologia di Raimondo di Sebonda saggio di Michiel signor di Montagna, nel quale si tratta della debolezza, & incertitudine del discorso humano. Trasportato dalla lingua francese nell'italiana, per opera di Marco Ginammi

4to (243x173 mm). [56], 158, [2] pp. Collation: a-g⁴ A-V⁴. The last leaf contains a catalogue of the works published by the printer Marco Ginammi. With woodcut printer's device on the title page, woodcut ornamental initials, head- and tail-pieces, and a woodcut vignette of a tree on l. g4 verso. With a rich apparatus of marginalia and chapter summaries. Contemporary cardboards (spine reinforced, panels soiled, binding slightly detached from the book block, traces of worm track in the final flyleaves). Occasionally slightly stained, marginal paper loss at the bottom of the l. K2 not affecting the text, paper restoration to title-page verso. A good, genuine copy. Uncut.

First edition in Italian of Montaigne's Apologie de Raimond Sebond, appeared a year after Ginammi's Italian edition of the Essais (Saggi di Michel Sig. di Montagna). The Apologia was edited and translated by the translator Girolamo Canini and the Venetian printer Marco Ginammi. Although the translation of the 1633 Saggi is explicitly attributed to Canini in the editor's address to the reader, there is no such acknowledgement in the 1634 edition of the Apologia. It is possible that Canini, who died in July 1631, didn't managed complete his translation of Montaigne's two works.

The present edition of the Apologia also contains the Avis “Au lecteur”, Marie de Gournay's preface, the subject index (Indice de' capitoli per ordine d'alfabetto), and finally a short biography of Montaigne. These texts, taken from Marie de Gournay's 1595 edition of the Essais, are presented here for the first time in Italian.

The Apologia is an exposition of Montaigne's sceptical philosophy. Defending Raimond's ‘Natural Theology' against criticism of heresy, Montaigne elaborates a defence of the Christian faith that departs from traditional patterns by placing scepticism at the centre, arguing that since human reason is limited and fallible, faith must be based primarily on divine revelation rather than reason.

Girolamo Canini, born in Anghiary (Tuscany) around 1551, belonged to the Order of the Gesuati. Almost nothing is known about the first sixty years of his life. In the last twenty years, however, Canini distinguished himself as the author, editor or translator of a considerable number of publications, among which stand out: an edition of the letters of Battista Guarini (1615); a new edition of Adriano Politi's translation of Tacitus's works(1618); a translation of Eustache de Refuge's Traicté de la cour (1621); a collection of political aphorisms taken from Guicciardini's History (1625); various works on French royal history; and, finally, the translation of the Essais, his last and most challenging editorial project.

Italian Union Catalogue, VEAE\002728; OCLC, 797351496; Graesse, IV, 580; Michel & Michel, V, 189; P. Van Heck, Montaigne in Italia: un curioso esemplare della traduzione di Girolamo Canini, in: “Neophilolohus”, vol. 98, 2014, pp. 557-564; P. Van Heck, The Essais in Italian: the Translation of Girolamo Canini, in: “Montaigne studies”, vol. XXIII (Translating Montaigne), 2011, pp. 39-53; E. Belmas, Girolamo Canini traduttore di Montaigne, in: “Montaigne e l'Italia”, Genève-Moncalieri, 1991, pp. 23-34.

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