Sonetti e canzoni di diversi antichi autori toscani in dieci libri raccolte. Di Dante Alighieri libri quattro. Di M. Cino da Pistoia libro uno. Di Guido Caualcanti libro uno. Di Dante da Maiano libro uno. Di Fra Guittone d’Arezzo libro uno. Di diverse canzoni e sonetti senza nome d’autore libro uno

Formato: in ottavo

In contemporary vellum

8vo (156x94 mm). [4], 148 leaves. Collation: AA⁴ a-s⁸ t⁴. Italic and roman type. Woodcut printer's device on the title page and verso of the last leaf. Errata at ll. t3v and t4r. Colophon and register at l. t4r. Contemporary vellum, inked title on spine. On the front flyleaf the ownership inscription of Michele Angelo Guinetti. Small stain at the bottom of the title page, some marginal staining, small loss to the outer lower corner of l. 131 slightly affecting the text. A very good, unsophisticated copy.

FIRST EDITIONof the remarkable collection known as the ‘Giuntina di rime antiche', the first anthology in print to contain Dante's canzoniere and the lyrics composed by poets of the Dolce Stil Novo tradition. Edited by Bardo di Antonio Segni, a member of a distinguished Florentine family, the anthology is an authentic monument to Italian vernacular poetry. In his prefatory letter the printer Bernardo Giunta addressed the publication to the “Amatori de le toscane rime”, i.e. admirers of Tuscan poetry, inviting them to read and study the early vernacular lyrical tradition, and above all Dante's poetry. The Giuntina di rime antiche is divided into eleven books (not ten, as erroneously stated in the title), and includes the texts of about three hundred poems, most of which had never appeared in print. The compositions are grouped by metrical form and are almost entirely by Tuscan authors, although the anthology also contains poetic works of the Sicilian and Bolognese Schools (the former is represented by, among others, Giacomo da Lentini, Guido delle Colonne, and Pier delle Vigne, while for the latter there are poems composed by Guido Guinizelli, and Onesto degli Onesti, among others).

The first four books of this edition are entirely devoted to Dante, and contain – for the first time – his complete poetic works, excluding the Commedia but including the poems from the Vita Nuova, which was only published in its complete form in 1576. The Giuntina poetical collection is particularly important from a textual point of view, and played a significant role in reconstructing the complex history of Dante's lyrical works. In addition to the fifteen so-called canzoni distese, the texts of which are mainly derived from Giovanni Boccaccio's transcriptions, the editor, Bardo di Antonio Segni, attributes to Dante a selection of poems which have come down to us but are not included in the manuscripts. This edition represents the highest achievement in print of the long tradition of Florentine lyric anthologies.

M. Palumbo, Dante Fifty Books, New York, 2016, no. 40; Edit 16, CNCE28787. G. Mambelli, Gli annali delle edizioni dantesche, Bologna, 1931, no. 995; Gamba, 799; D. Decia, R. Delfiol & L.S. Camerini, I Giunti tipografi editori di Firenze (1497-1570). Parte prima, Florence, 1978, p. 134, no. 206; Pettas, 219.

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