Libreria Antiquaria Pregliasco

50. RuchAT & STANYAN
51. ShAkeSpeARe, William. Il Giulio cesare.
Tragedia istorica tradotta dall’inglese in lingua
toscana dal dottor domenico Valentini. Siena,
Agostino Bindi, 1756, € 17.500
in-8, ff. (28), pp. 154 (misnumb. 254), attractive contemporary
binding in vellum, callygraphic title on spine. The
first appearance in Italian of any of Shakespeare’s text.
It is extremely rare, only three copies in Italian libraries,
one at the BL and at Oxford, one copy in American
libraries. In his long (56 pages) preliminary note about the
art of translation Valentini avoids that he doesn’t know any
English, but enlisted the service of a few English gentlemen
of his acquaintance who
knew Italian; “he omitted
most of Shakespeare’s
images, which seemed
unsuitable to his plain
Tuscan discourse”. (Praz,
Shakespeare and Italy).
A very fine copy bound
with 2 other works by
Girolamo Gigli (Siena,
1759 and 1768).
Collison-Morley.
Shakespeare in Italy,
1916. [18254]
39