In morte di Carlo Imbonati. Versi di Alessandro Manzoni a Giulia Beccaria sua madre

8vo (196x135 mm). 19, [1 blank] pp. Later cloth-backed marbled boards, sprinkled edges. On the front flyleaf manuscript ownership entry “G. Vercelli”. Gutter between pp. 1 and 2 reinforced, scattered foxing. A modest copy though printed on large paper.

First edition printed in Italy of Manzoni's first work ever consigned to publication. The original noncommercial edition was issued in Paris in 1806 by the publisher Didot at the author's expense in only 100 copies. Immediately after the Paris edition three reprints appeared in Italy, in Milan, Rome, and Brescia.

It is a consolatory epistle in loose verse addressed by the poet to his mother, composed on the occasion of the death of her companion Carlo Imbonati. Manzoni did not have the opportunity to meet him personally, but he drew a laudatory portrait of him, celebrating him as an intellectual master.

The Milan edition was edited by Giambattista Pagani, a close friend of Manzoni, who on his own initiative inserted in the book a dedication to Vincenzo Monti, which infuriated Manzoni. After his religious conversion, the author disavowed the poem, considering the celebration of his mother's extramarital love inappropriate, and forbade any reprinting.

Vismara, 193; Parenti, 213.

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