DECAMERONE DI MESSER GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO

First Foscolo edition. One of just 12 sets containing 11 engraved plates by Stothard in the proof state printed on India paper. Inscribed by the publisher William Pickering. Bound by Hayday in full fine crushed dark green morocco with gilt ruling and decoration to the boards and spine, titles in gilt to the spine, gilt dentelles and gilt to all page edges. Printed by S. & R. Bentley on fine laid paper. A very good copy, with only minor rubbing and bumping to the boards. The contents with the armorial bookplate of Hugh Perkins to the front pastedown of each volume, a previous owner's bookplate to the front free endpaper of volume one and some offsetting to the pages either side of the plates, are otherwise clean throughout. A beautiful set.

Inscribed by the publisher William Pickering to the front endpaper of volume one "This copy contains a set of the plates by Stothard of which only 12 were taken upon India paper before the letters, W. Pickering". A wonderful early nineteenth century edition of this masterpiece of early Italian literature, notable for its lengthy introductory essay ('Discorso storico sul testo del Decamerone Foscolo') by the Italian poet Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827). Whilst living in London during the last eleven years of his life, Foscolo, a popular figure in fashionable literary and political circles, produced several well received dissertations on the central figures of Italian literature, including Boccaccio, Dante and Petrarch. His prefatory dedication to the present work is to the Whig politician and bibliophile Roger Wilbraham. In it, Foscolo suggests that this new edition would make a fine addition to Wilbraham's collection of Italian literature, which contained many of the rarest works of both ancient and modern poetry and romance, and upon which Foscolo himself had drawn during the production of his writings. A superb copy of the important first Foscolo edition, very scarce with the proof engravings. For an account see Vincent, 'Ugo Foscolo: An Italian in Regency England' (1953).