Susanne Schulz-Falster Catalogue Eighteen - International League ...

was a friend of Petrarch’s and tutor to his son. After studying in Bologna, he
settled in Verona, where he served as a judge. He later became chancellor to
Mastino II della Scala, and was involved in diplomatic missions.
DBI 61. 17–22; Graesse ‘C’est le premier essai d’un dictionnaire historique, bibliographique
et géographique’.
Political Utopia
85. [PILATI DI TASSULO, Carlo-Antonio.] Riflessioni di un
Italiano sopra la Chiesa in generale, sopra il Clero si regolare che
secolare, sopra i Vescovi ed i Pontefici Romani, e sopra i Diritti
ecclesiastici de’ Principi. Borgo Francone, n.p., 1768. £950
8vo, pp. [xiv], [2], 564, [2] errata; contemporary full sheep, spine gilt
in compartments, gilt-lettered spine label, blue pastepaper endpapers; a
fine copy.
First edition of Pilati’s second work, a political utopia, which followed on
from his Riforma d’Italia of the year before with its demands of tolerance
and freedom of conscience.
‘The description of the events in Cumba, an imaginary country and
that ‘immense stretch of land lying between the Empire of China and
the kingdom of Portuguese Brasilia’ belongs ... to that genre of Utopian
literature popular in the eighteenth century. It was designed to demonstrate
the destruction wrought in an innocent and pagan kingdom by the arrival of
Catholic missionaries, and particularly Jesuits. This was an excuse for a fierce
attack on the religious order, their system of education, their parasit ism and
social harmfulness’ (Carpanetto & Ricuperati, Italy in the Age of Reason, pp.
279ff.). Just as in his Riforma, Pilati argues that the only effective solution
of the problem was the abolition of all religious orders. Their mere reform
would prove insufficient, since it preserved their power and thus their
vices, and kept the ‘state within the state’ strong. Pilati argues for their total
distruction, so as to abolish immunities, church properties and jurisdiction.
A German translation was published the same year.
Not in Feltrinelli catalogue; OCLC: National Library of Scotland.
Pictographic Origin of Chinese Characters
86. PIPER, Gottfried Otto. Bezeichnungen Bezeichnungen des
Welt- und Lebensanfanges in der Chinesischen Bilderschrift. Berlin,
G. Reimer, 1846. [together with:] ALS, written in ink, Bernburg,
4. October 1849. £2,200
8vo, pp. viii, 167, [1], with one large folding lithograph plate showing
Chinese characters; contemporary marbled boards, gilt-lettered spine
label; tail of spine a little scuffed, else fine, with faint library stamp
(discarded) to title; together with fine ALS in French, large 4to (280 x
220 mm), pp. 4 on bifolium, foldmarks.
susanne schulz-falster rare books catalogue eighteen
First and only edition of this early study of the pictographic origins of Chinese
characters, well-illustrated and accompanied by an extensive autograph
letter by Piper defending his theories. In the preface Piper expresses his
interest in Chinese characters denoting physical and physiological concepts.
He restricts himself to deal with 176 characters used in expressing concepts
of the beginning of the world and life, their combination, underlying
philosophical concepts and change of use. Piper was born in 1820 in
Bernburg and got a medical degree from the Leipzig University in 1838
for a thesis on pharmacology. Besides being a medical practitioner, first
in Dresden and later in his hometown, he had a keen interest in the
young discipline of sinology and published an article on the physiological
concepts of the Chinese in 1842. The Societé Asiatique was not impressed,
accusing Piper of subjective interpretation of phonetic symbols. In the
accompanying long autograph letter containing many Chinese characters,
which was presumably sent to the well-known sinologist Stanislav Julien,
Piper defends his work and explains his theories about Chinese phonetic
signs and their historical roots in pictographic signs.
Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, c. 1747; not in Löwendahl; OCLC lists copies at the
BL, University of Philadelphia and Cornell.
The Rules of Tarot
87. [PISARRI, Carlo.] Istruzioni necessarie per chi volesse
imparare il giuoco dilettevole delli Tarocchini di Bologna. Bologna,
Ferdinando Pisarri, 1754. £600
8vo, pp. 123, [1] license leaf, engraved vignette to title page depicting a
putto with tarot cards in his hands, and charming engraved headpiece,
showing a card-playing scene; some spotting and foxing, due to paper
quality, and more pronounced at beginning and end; contemporary
carta rustica, spine quite rubbed and chipped, corners rounded, and
some pencil markings to upper wrapper.