Poesie di Ugo Foscolo

Formato: in ottavo

8vo (203x139 mm). 29, [3] pp. Loose in contemporary marbled wrappers (the volume and the wrappers have the holes of a previous stitching), but attached with two strings to a later half-leather binding with gilt title on spine. A very good, uncut copy.

Second edition, partly original, printed at the author's expense in only 260 copies. It features a dedication by Foscolo to Giovanni Battista Niccolini. The present copy does not bear the copy number that Foscolo usually inscribed by hand, “evidently to guard himself against any surprises on the part of the publisher” (Acchiappati).

Compared to the first edition of the ‘Poems', which was published in Pisa in 1803 and featured only one ode and eight sonnets, this edition contains two odes and eleven sonnets in total, including the previously unpublished “Alla amica risanata”, “Forse perché della fatal quiete”, “Né più mai toccherò le sacre sponde”, and “Pur tu, copia versavi alma di canto”.

This anthology marks the birth of a new Foscolo poetics, representing a clear break with the mannerist Arcadian poetic production that characterized the Italian eighteenth century literary scene.

Acchiappati, 32; Ottolini, 97, Mazzolà, 21.

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