Il fraterno amore, overo il Delio, favola pastorale con gli intermedii apparenti ... [BOUND WITH] Rime del conte Gio. Battista Arigoni. de Arrigoni (or Arigoni), Giovanni Battista, conte - 1610

Padova (i.e., Padua): Pietro Paolo Tozzi, 1610. First editions. Very Good. Two titles in one volume. 12mo (16 cm); 82, [2]; 82, [2]. Both titles within elaborate engraved borders (the first an architectural border with putti and figures, the second showing the emblem of the Accademia dei Fecondi); woodcut initials and ornaments. In early plain pastepaper boards. Text block untrimmed, preserving deckle edges. Occasional light damp stains.

References: Michel I, 254, #4 and #11; Bruni & Evans, Italian 17th cent., #314;

First editions of two works by Count Giovanni Battista Arrigoni (sometimes spelled with one R, Arigoni) of Padua, member of the Accademia dei Fecondi and founder of the Accademia degli Avveduti (sometimes spelled with one V, Aveduti). In the wake of Tasso's Aminta and Guarini's Il Pastor Fido, the composition of pastoral musicals spread fast through Italy's creative salons, organized as "Academies." The Accademia degli Aveduti, founded and directed by Arrigo, boasted the membership of the notable Tuscan composer Gaspare Torelli, and it is almost certain that Torelli composed the music for Arrigoni's pastoral play Il Fraterno Amore (Brotherly Love), published here with a dedication to Cosimo II de' Medici.

The second work, with its own title page and pagination, is the first edition of a collection of 133 baroque poems (under the stylistic influence of Giambattista Marino) dedicated to Cardinal Odoardo Farnese. True to form, the poet presents complex, highly-wrought linguistic curlicues to such mundane subjects as his admiration for a lady with blond hair to an account of an escaped pet dog. Printed at the end are six poems dedicated to Arrigoni himself by members of the nobility, the last two of these in Greek and Hebrew respectively.

Although the two works are commonly catalogued separately, it should be clear that they were intended to be issued together, as a single publication within one binding, as in the case of the present copy.