RARE FIRST ALDINE EDITION COMPLETE WITH THE 5 SUPPRESSED SONGS. Poesie volgari, nuovamente stampate, di Lorenzo de' Medici, che fu padre di Papa Leone: Col commento del medesimo sopra alcuni de suoi sonetti.

COMPLETE WITH O5-8 AND IN C18TH NICELY DECORATED VELLUM

FIRST ALDINE EDITION. 8vo (15,7x9,5CM). A-Z8 2A-2C8, ff. 205, [3]. Italic letter, very little Roman. Printer's device on t-p and on verso of final blank leaf, large historiated woodcut initial at beginning of text. 2 leaves of errata; register and repeated imprint at colophon. Faded ms. ex libris on t-p: "Di Gennaro Giannelli" (fl. C17th-C18th, Roman bibliophile, physician and man of letters). Occasional marginal early annotations throughout; old ink note on centre of upper pastedown stating that the five songs which were removed from almost all copies are present in this copy. They were inserted later. Indeed the original 4-leave quire O was entirely substituted with a complete 8vo gathering, probably taken from another copy, since it shows skilful restorations to the foot of each leaf, and sometimes the outer margin, in order to adjust the quire to the present copy. Masterly repair to the t-p's outer margin with paper integration most likely due to the removal of an older ownership note. Occasional very mild foxing, toning or spotting on a few leaves, else in very good condition. Crisp and mainly clean copy. Bound in 18th c. full vellum over pasteboards, richly decorated on spine and covers with gilt-tooled motives and fleurons. Ruled large borders in red. An excellent copy in a fine binding. A.e.y.

As stated in the online catalogue's record that describes the three copies of this book held by the University of California, "it appears that after a few copies of signature O had been printed with eight leaves (leaves 105-112) five canzoni were eliminated, thus reducing signature O to four leaves (leaves 105-108), with the reduced text re-arranged and in part reset so as to be continued without break on leaf 113, which follows 108." Furthermore, the record reports that the UCLA copy is a "made-up copy, in which the leaves removed earlier were replaced, at a later time, with those from another copy." Thus, the present copy is comparable with the UCLA's aldine. The five canzoni removed were: "O dio, o sommo bene, hor come fai"; "O maligno e duro core"; "Ben ch 'io rida, balli et canti", "E convien ti dica il vero"; "Una donna havea disire." The removal was clearly intended to be immediate as the register records: "tutti sono quaderni, eccetto O che e duerno." This intervention in course of press was probably decided by Paolo Manuzio to avoid censorship of rhymes considered licentious or simply facetious. All this with the intention of providing a lyrical and Petrarchian image of Lorenzo, devaluing instead the popular and laughing dimension of his lyric, in accordance with the Venetian taste of the time.

Adams, M1005; Ahmanson-Murphy 473; Renouard p.162: Presque tous les exemplaires sont mutilès de cinq chansons (Canzoni) dans la feuille O ; Edit16, CNCE 27192, Var. A (with insertion of the whole O gathering).