Lettere di XIII. huomini illustri. Alle quali oltra tutte l'altre fin qua stampate, di nuovo ne sono state aggiunte molte

8vo. (8), 448 leaves. +, A-Z, Aa-Zz, Aaa-Kkk⁸. With the printer's device on the title-page. Modern boards.

Adams, L-570; Basso, p. 180; Braida, p. 36; Edit 16, CNCE 40859.

LAST 16^TH CENTURY EDITION of the Atanagi/Ruscelli/Porcacchi's collection Lettere di XIII huomini illustri. Porcacchi's edition was first published one year after the last Ruscelli‘s edition (1564) by Giorgio de' Cavalli at Venice with a dedication to Gregorio Macigni, dated November 17, 1565; it contains in addition a new seventeenth book containing thirty-seven letters by eleven authors. It was reprinted in 1566, 1571, 1576, 1582, and 1584 with various typographical variants.

“Nel 1565 uscì a cura di Tommaso Porcacchi, un'ulteriore versione, contenente il diciassettesimo libro, in cui il letterato toscano inseriva numerose sue lettere e di autori noti come Giulio Camillo Delminio, Bernardino Tomitano e Bernardo Tasso, molte delle quali riguardanti la difficile genesi dell'Amadigi, già note al pubblico perché uscite nel secondo libro delle Lettere del Tasso (1560). Porcacchi, ideatore, tra l'altro, della collana storica uscita presso Giolito a partire del 1563, riprendeva la stessa formula del Ruscelli, che consisteva nell'offrire qualcosa di nuovo mantenendo però anche le epistole già presenti nelle altre edizioni, con un processo di accumulazione che andò avanti fino al 1584, quando uscì l'ultima edizione nell'assetto dato dal letterato toscano. In questo modo si può dire che l'antologia dell'Atanagi, con le successive integrazioni del Ruscelli e del Porcacchi, visse una lunga stagione e percorse a partire del 1554, trent'anni del secolo, adeguandosi via via alle nuove esigenze imposte dal clima controriformistico” (L. Braida, Libri di lettere. Le raccolte epistolari del Cinquecento tra inquietudini religiose e ‘buon volgare', Bari, 2009, pp. 150-160).

Books I-XV (leaves 1-359r) contain the same 261 letters as the Ruscelli edition of 1560.

Book XVI contains a choice of 53 letters by Vincenzo Martelli (d. ca. 1556), poet and majordomo to Ferrante Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno, first published in his Rime (Firenze, 1563):

Bertani, Lucia (l. 359v)

Colonna, Vittoria (l. 360r)

[De Sangro, Paolo] Marchese di Torremaggiore (p. 360r)

Aragona, Tullia d' (l. 360v)

Cambi, Tommaso (l. 361r)

[Avalos, Alfonso d'], Marquis of Vasto (l. 361v)

Ardinghelli, [Niccolò] (l. 361v)

[Cardona, Maria di], Marquise of Padula (l. 362v)

[Aragona, Ferdinando d'], Duke of Calaurla (=Calabria) (l. 363r)

[Sanseverino, Giambernardo], Duke of Somma (l. 363v)

[Toledo, Eleonora di], Duchess of Florence (l. 363v)

Rangoni, Fulvio (l. 364r)

Padre Enea. Firenze, July 12, 1549 (l. 364r)

Rangone, Claudia. Firenze, July 12, 1549 (l. 365r)

[Sanseverino, Ferrante], Principe di Salerno (l. 365r)

Vettori, Pietro. Firenze, October 10, 1532 (l. 365v)

id. Napoli, January 26, 1537 (l. 366r)

id. (l. 366v)

[Aragona, Giovanna d'] Duchessa di Tagliacozzo (l. 376r)

Rota, Alfonso (l 367v)

Basurto, [Alfonso] (l. 368v)

Bertani, Lucia. Firenze, July 17, 1549 (l. 369r)

Pico Rangone, Lucrezia. Firenze, July 12, 1569 [for 1549] (l. 369v)

[Sanseverino, Ferrante], Principe di Salerno (l. 370r)

[Villamarina, Isabella] Principessa di Salerno (l. 371v)

Maximilian [of Austria] (l. 373v)

Paleario, Aonio (l. 373v)

[Sanseverino, Ferrante], Principe di Salerno (l. 374r)

Placito da Sancro (l. 376v)

Carafa, Ferrante. Salerno, June 20, 1548 (l. 377r)

[Aragona, Giovanna d'] Duchessa d'Amalfi (l. 377r)

Granvelle [Antoine Perrenot de] (l. 377v)

Aragona, Giovanna d' (l. 378r)

Sanseverino, Aurelia (l. 389r)

[Mazzuoli, Giovanni, called] Stradino (l. 389r)

Caracciolo, Galeazzo (l. 380r)

Colonna, Vittoria. Roma, October 8, 1548 (l. 380v)

[Sanseverino, Ferrante] Principe di Salerno (l. 382r)

Medici, Lorenzo de' (l. 383r)

[Capua, Andrea di] Duca di Termoli, Salerno, n.d. (l. 383v)

Panciatichi, Bartolomeo (l. 384r)

Copola, Vincenzo (l. 384r)

Capece, Scipione (l. 385r)

Tasso, Bernardo (l. 386r)

Iova, Giuseppe (l. 387r)

[Sanseverino, Ferrante] Principe di Salerno (l. 388v)

id. Lucca, November 13, 1547 (l. 390v)

id. (l. 391r, Io son venuto a Fiorenza)

id. (l. 391v, Io son dotto delle qualità)

id. Roma, March 21, 1549 (l. 391v)

id. (l. 394r, Io son giunto a Roma)

Ridolfi, [Niccolò]. Salerno, September 25, 1545 (l. 394v)

Martelli, Pandolfo (l. 395r)

Book XVII contains 37 letters by various authors:

Delminio, Giulio Camillo to Fratina, Bernardino. Bologna, February 18, 1530 (l. 396r)

Altano, Antonio. Bologna, September 20, 1532 (l. 396v)

id. Venezia, January 29, 1533 (l. 397r)

id. San Vito, April 17, 1529 (p. 397v)

id. Paris, August 13, 1533 (l. 398r)

id. Venezia, April 30, 1528 (l. 398r)

Al-Malik al Ashraf, Sultan of Babylon (=Egypt) to John II, King of Cyprus. November 29 , 1453 (l. 398v)

Francis I, King of France to [Gonzaga, Ercole], Cardinal of Mantua. September 18, 1544 (l. 399v)

Podocataro, Ettore to [Podocataro], Pietro. (l. 400v)

Bambasi, Gabriele to Galeotti, Giovanni Battista. Reggio, August 15, 1565 (l. 401v)

Caro, Annibal to Bizzarri, Pietro. Parma, March 3, 1559 (l. 403r)

Tomitano, Bernardino to Bizzarri, Pietro. Padova, September 26, 1565 (l. 403v)

id. to id. Padova, October 11, 1565 (l. 403v)

Tasso, Bernardo to Pavesi, Cesare. Ferrara, April 15, 1562 (l. 405r)

Giraldi, Giovanni Battista to Tasso, Bernardo. Ferrara, October 10, 1557 (l. 405v)

Tasso, Bernardo to Varchi, Benedetto. Venezia, March 6, 1559 (l. 421r)

id. to Ruscelli, Girolamo. Monte Imperiale, May 4, 1557 (l. 423v)

id. to Gomez, Rui, Prince of Evoli. Venezia, March 14, 1559 (l. 427v)

id. to [Avalos, Francesco Ferdinando d'], Marquis of Pescara. Venezia, July 10, 1560 (l. 430v)

id. to Gallo, Antonio. Venezia, July 12, 1560 (l. 431v)

id. to Gallio, Tolomeo. Venezia, June 10, 1560 (l. 433r)

id. to Porcacchi, Tommaso. Venezia, June 10, 1560 (l. 434r)

Maffei, Raffaele to Barzetti, Nicolò. Venezia, June 28, 1564 (l. 435v)

Porcacchi, Tommaso to Podocataro, Ettore (l. 437r)

id. to Valvasone, Erasmo di (l. 437v)

id. to Pagetti Arrigo (l. 438v)

id. to [Stefani] da Ragusa, Bonifacio (l. 439r).

id. to Maggi, Giuliano (l.439v)

id. to Este, Aurora d' (l. 440r)

id. to Uggeri, Paolo (l. 440v)

id. to Maioli, Cipriano (l. 441v)

id. to Ciceri, Severino (l. 442v)

id. to Malim, William (l. 443r)

id. to Del Setaiolo, Giovanni Battista (l. 445r)

id. to Macigni, Gregorio (l. 445v)

id. to Manuzio, Paolo (l. 446r)

id. to Cotti Mario (l. 447r)

Dionigi Atanagi was born in Cagli in the Duchy of Urbino. After receiving his early education in Perugia, he moved in 1532 to Rome, where he served as secretary to the prelate Giovanni Guidiccioni, made other influential friends, joined literary academies, and wrote poetry, some of which was published in the Versi et regole de la nuova poesia toscana (1539) edited by his friend Claudio Tolomei. The first fruit of his real vocation, that of editor, was the present collection De le lettere di tredici huomini illustri (1554). However, he spent twenty-five years in Rome striving in vain against the ill fortune, which (caused perhaps by his own faults) incessantly persecuted him. After the death of both, Guidiccioni and Tolomei, he left Rome in sickness and dejection. For a certain time he found a harbor in Pesaro at the court of Urbino revising Bernardo Tasso's Amadigi for the press. Because of the precarious state of his health he retired temporarily to his native Cagli. In 1559 he moved to Venice, no doubt in search of better publishing opportunities than those offered in Rome. In Venice he found a steady employment as secretary to the short-lived Accademia della Fama, which was dissolved in 1561, probably in prudent anticipation of a possible investigation by the Inquisition. He spent, with short interruptions at Cagli, the remainder of his life in Venice, earning a precarious livelihood by occasionally assisting literary amateurs in the preparation of their works for the press. He died in Venice and was buried in the church of San Luca beside Lodovico Dolce.

Atanagi's acquaintance with major literary figures all over Italy (for instance, Benedetto Varchi, Bernardo Cappello, Bernardo Tasso, Curzio Gonzaga, Domenico Vernier, Erasmo Valvassone, Francesco Patrizi, Giuseppe Betussi, Giovanni Battista Pigna, Girolamo Muzio, Girolamo Zoppio, Lodovico Dolce, Lodovico Domenichi, Luca Contile, Luigi Tansillo, Remigio Nannini, Scipione Ammirato, Sebastiano Erizzo, Tommaso Porcacchi, Torquato Tasso, Laura Battiferri, Laura Terracina and many others) enabled him to accomplish some ambitious editorial projects like the present one and, previously, the collection of poems in memory of Irene di Spilimbergo (Rime di diversi nobilissimi, et eccelentissimi autori, in morte della Signora Irene delle Signore di Spilimbergo, Venezia, 1561) (cf. A. Corsaro, Dionigi Atanagi e la silloge per Irene di Spilimbergo (Intorno alla formazione del giovane Tasso), in: “Italica”, 75/1, 1998, pp. 41-61; Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, Roma, 1962, IV, pp. 503-506; and G. Meyrat, Dionigi Atanagi e un esempio di petrarchismo nel Cinquecento, in: “Aevum”, LII, 1978, pp. 450-458).

Girolamo Ruscelli, of humble origins, was born in Viterbo and became one of the leading editors of the Cinquecento. He was first active in Rome, where he founded the Accademia dello Sdegno, and later settled in Venice working for such publishers as Sessa and Valgrisi. He was a friend of Bernardo and Torquato Tasso, Lodovico Dolce and Pietro Aretino, the last two were to become his rivals in several bitter controversies (cf. P. Trovato, Con ogni diligenza corretto: la stampa e le revisioni editoriali dei testi letterari italiani (1470-1570), Bologna, 1991, pp. 241-298; and B. Richardson, Print Culture in Renaissance Italy. The Editor and the Vernacular Text, 1470-1600, Cambridge, 1994, passim and p. 109).

Tommaso Porcacchi, a native of Castiglione Aretino, was a protegé of Duke Cosimo I de' Medici, who enabled him to study in Florence. In 1556 were published his first works (a life of Virgil and a partial translation of the Aeneid). Here he also made the acquaintance of Ludovico Domenichi, who brought him in contact with the Venetian publisher Gabriele Giolito. For him, after he married the poetess Bianca d'Este and found a home in Venice, he edited the works of Boccaccio, Guicciardini, Sannazaro, Bembo and many others, as well as a series of Roman and Greek historians. He was a member of the Accademia degli Occulti of Brescia and wrote Funerali antichi di diversi popoli e nazioni (1574), La nobiltà della città di Como (1569), and his most successful work, Le isole più famose del mondo (1572).

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