LE COSTELLAZIONI DEL POLO ARTICO

8vo, pp. 66; engraved vignette on page 3; printed on very light blue paper; some spotting and browning in places, first three gatherings detached; in contemporary mottled calf, board bordered in gilt; red edges; somewhat bumped and worn, wormhole near head of spine, and spine chipped at head; despite faults, quite an attractive copy.

Uncommon collection, printed on light blue paper, of poems on astronomical themes printed to celebrate the wedding of Count Bernardino Antonelli to Baroness Caterina Ancajani, edited by Count Girolamo Fagnani Tesini (born 1746).

In his preface, Tesini notes that the Greek poets 'applicarono i successi umani alle Stelle, e gl' Italiani Poeti applican' oggi le stelle ai successi umani'. And so we open with a sonnet addressed to Uranus, before a canzone on the pole star by the poet (and translator of Addison) Gaetano Golt, an ode on Ursa Major by Ignazio Ondedei, another on the Boreal Triangle by the Roman antiquarian and politician Enni Quirino Visconi, and many more; aside from one Latin sermo on Pegasus, the poems are all in Italian; in all, the volume contains fifteen poems in a variety of metres, ranging in length from a couple of stanzas to several pages.

Not in Nuptualia; not in OCLC; SBN records copies at the Biblioteca comunale Francesco Antolisei in San Severino Marche and the Biblioteca comunale Augusta in Perugia.