La Cleopatra tragedia del cavaliere Scipione Cigala de' Principi di Tiriolo tra gli arcadi Demalgo Dinosteniese

4to (230x162 mm). Engraved frontispiece by Antonio Baldi, [4] pp., engraved portrait of the author by Antonio Baldi after Tommaso Martini, 56, [2] pp. Title page printed in red and black with an engraved vignette by Andrea Magliar in the center. Engraved initials and head-pieces by Francesco Sesoni. Contemporary stiff vellum, sprinkled edges. Some occasional light foxing, but a very good, genuine copy.

First edition of this five-act verse tragedy with a chorus. On the final leaf, after the imprimatur, the approbation of the Arcadia Academy of which Cigala was a member under the pseudonym of Demalgo Dinosteniese, is signed by Giambattista Vico, under the Arcadian name of Laufilo Terio, as one of the deputy responsible for revising the text, together with Alessio Niccolò Rossi (Andromio Petrosario), Domenico Rolli (Idasio Cillenio) and Ignazio Maria Mancini (Echione Cineriano) (cf. B. Croce-F. Nicolini, Bibliografia vichiana, Naples, 1947-1948, I, p. 99, no. 9)

Little is known about Scipione Cigala's life. He was probably born in Naples, but was educated in Rome. A knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, he was the author also of a volume of poems (Rime, Naples, 1760) and of a heroic poem called Il Costantino (Naples, 1777) (cf. C.A. Villarosa, Notizie di alcuni Cavalieri dell'Ordine Gerosolimitano, Naples, 1841, pp. 106-107).

Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\SBLE\003906; H. Möller, Beiträge zur dramatischen Cleopatra-Literatur, Schweinfurt, 1907, p. 23.

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