MARINO Giovanni Battista L’Adone, poemata con gli argomenti del conte Fortunanio Sanvitale et l’allegarie di don Lorenzo Scoto.

Guigard, I, 309.

Rare early edition. A magnificent copy bound in contemporary red Morocco for Jean-Baptiste Le Goux de la Berchère.

Expelled from his Neapolitan family home for preferring poetry to law, Giambattista Marino found himself obliged to seek out protectors and patrons. He therefore frequented various Italian courts and the literary circles of the cities where they lived, in particular the academies. In 1609, the favor of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, earned him the dignity of knight of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, hence the name "Cavalier Marin". Marino moved to Paris in 1615, at the invitation of Marie de Médicis. During his stay in France, he published, among other works, Epithalami (1616), La Galeria and La Sampogna (1620).

The first edition of L'Adone appeared in April 1623. Shortly afterwards, the Cavalier Marin returned to Italy, where he received a triumphant reception. He died in his native Naples in 1625. At almost 41,000 lines spread over twenty songs, L'Adone is one of the longest poems in Italian literature (almost three times the length of The Divine Comedy). The evocation of the love affair between the goddess Venus and the handsome Adonis gives rise to numerous descriptions, digressions and events that are far removed from the original myth, all in a highly refined style designed to arouse the reader's wonder, the goal of poetry according to Marino. L'Adone is not only one of the longest poems in Italian literature but also one of the most controversial. It was condemned by Pope Urban VIII in 1624 and put on the Index in 1627 because of its lascivious scenes and mixture of the sacred and profane. However, it continued to be widely read in Italy throughout the 17th century.

The engraved title page is illustrated with a very fine plate by Valesio, painter and engraver in Venice between 1597 and 1643. It depicts the eponymous hero flanked by his dog and the boar that mortally wounded them during a hunting party. The framing of flowers and angels also foretells the young man's sad end. This edition is dedicated to the queen of France Marie de Medici whose dedication is dated June 30, 1623.

Provenance : The binding was most probably made for Jean-Baptiste Le Goux de La Berchère (1568-1631), first president of the parliament of Dijon. It is attributable to the workshop of Le Gascon (see Esmerian, II, Appendix A. I: Le Gascon), decorated with a very nice fan-shaped gilt tool in the decoration. The binding itself is perfectly executed. The book passed into the library of his son, Pierre, and then of his grandson, Charles Le Goux de La Berchère (1647-1719), successively archbishop of Aix, Albi and then of Narbonne in 1703. The latter possessed "one of the most important libraries of the time, embracing all branches of human knowledge, which he bequeathed to the Jesuits; a part of it, however, passed to his successor on the see of Narbonne, Mgr de Bauveau" (OHR, pl. 2334). Part of his library is preserved in Toulouse.

Magnificent copy.