Home
Shopping cart (0 items € 0)
Go Back

Only copy located of an Italian verse edition of the popular story of Floris and Blancheflour

[FLORIS & BLANCHEFLOUR].
Istoria di Florindo e Chiarastella.
Naples, [ca. 1790]. 4to. With a woodcut on the title-page (8.5 x 11.5 cm), it and the title together in a frame of thick-thin rules. Set in two columns. Modern boards. [8] pp.
€ 2,500
Only copy located of a ca. 1790 Naples chapbook edition in Italian verse of the popular story of Floris and Blancheflour, here Florindo and Chiarastella (in some editions Chiara Stella). The story is first known from a 12th-century French version, but appeared in many languages in the 13th- and 14th-centuries. It tells the story of an Islamitic King of Spain who sends away a Christian servant Chiarastella. His son Florindo, in love with the girl, rescues and marries her and the inherit the kingdom. The large woodcut shows two pastoral scenes in the foreground. On the left the King of Spain or his son Prince Florindo with two attendents, all on horse-back, meet a bearded man with a young boy, while to the left Florindo[?] and his dog find Chiarastella under a tree. In the background is a fortified building with gardens behind, presumably where Chiarastella was held prisoner, with two knights jousting before it and two men heading toward the door. The sun, moon and the stars appear at upper left. Naples was long Italy's leading centre of chapbook production.
In the literature we fine only two similar editions, both extremely rare. Both are quartos of 4 leaves, printed in Naples, each with an illustration on the title-page. One was published by (Gennaro?) Riccio in 1791 and the other by Gaetano Eboli ca. 1805. Each has an illustration on the title-page, at least in the former printed from a woodblock (in the latter, the illustration is said to be a copperplate).
In very good condition, with only some minor foxing, and nearly untrimmed, retaining deckles at the fore-edge. Cf. WorldCat (2 similar Naples eds. pub. by Riccio 1791 (1 copy) & Eboli ca. 1800 (2 copies)); no similar ed. in ICCU.
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Related Subjects:

Europe  >  France, Greece & Italy
Literature & linguistics  >  Literature & Linguistics