Catalogo di commedie italiane

8vo. 210 x 120 mm., [8 x 4 ¾ inches].  vi, [2], 179 pp.  Illustrated with an etched vignette of a coat-of-arms on the title-page.  Bound in original paste-paper boards; some light soiling to covers, otherwise a very good copy.

Only edition of this rare bibliography of Italian comedy in the Library of Tommaso Giuseppe Farsetti, written by the one of the most important librarians and cataloguers in Venice during the later years of the 18th century.  The books are classified by types of comedies, including sacred plays, tragedies, pastorals, fables, and rustic comedies.  The works are organized by author and in some cases, by characters from the play.  In addition to the short title description Morelli includes information on format, biographical information on the author, some notes on its reception and position vis-à-vis other works in the genre. 

Jacopo Morelli (1745-1819) was born in Venice, educated in the Church, but made his mark as a bibliographer and later Librarian of the Biblioteca Marciani in Venice.  Morelli is most well-known for his manuscript catalogues, his discoveries and identification of ancient texts in the libraries of Venice and Bassano, and the catalogue he wrote of the Pinelli collection published in 1787. In addition to this catalogue written for Farsetti, Morelli wrote a catalogue of his manuscript collection (1771-1780), a catalogue of Italian local history based on the Farsetti's library (1782: see below) and his own catalogue of books that he left to the Biblioteca Marciani upon his death, amongst other publication.  Tomasso Giuseppe Farsetti was a passionate writer and translator who built a very large library and commission Morelli to document his collection.  He also left a collection of books and manuscripts to the Marciani.

Carlo Frato. Dizionario Bio-Bibliografica dei Bibliotecari e Bibliofile Italiani, pp. 379-384.  Gianna dell Bono.  Storia delle Biblioteche fra Settecento e Novecento. Saggio Bibliografico. (Roma, 1988) no. 16.  G. Ottino and G. Fumagalli, Bibliotheca Bibliographica Italica, 3897.