1513 - Strozii poetae pater et filius. Venetijs : in aedibus Aldi et Andreae Asulani soceri: FIRST EDITION, COLLECTED BY ALDUS MANUTIUS

First Edition of the works of the Humanists Tito and Ercole Strozzi collected by Aldus Manutius

Strozzi, Tito Vespasiano & Strozzi, Ercole. Strozii poetae pater et filius. Venetijs : in aedibus Aldi et Andreae Asulani soceri, 1513.

2 parts, 8vo (15,5 x 10 cm), XVIII century stiff vellum binding, marbled edges, ff. [8], 152 (this part often bound at the end), 99, [1], Aldus printer device (U538) at title page and at f. t8v, Aldus Manutius dedicatory letter to Lucrezia Borgia at ff. A2-A3r; Aldus epitaph for Ercole Strozzi at f. N3v-N4r; funeral oration by Celio Calcagnini for Ercole Strozzi at t4-8r; signature πA⁸ a-i⁸ K⁸ l-t⁸ A-M⁸ N⁴, (N4v blank), colophon at f. N3r "Venetijs : in aedibus Aldi et Andreae Asulani soceri, 1513", other colophon at f. t8r.

The volume contains the Eroticon by Tito Strozzi, followed by the Poems of his son Ercole, a collection published by Aldus Manutius on a request of Lucrezia Borgia, Duchess of Ferrara, dedicatee of the work.

Tito Vespasiano Strozzi (Ferrara, about 1424 - 1505) was an Italian poet educated in the humanistic culture and the study of the classics, trained in the school of Guarino de 'Guarino.

He was a patrician of Ferrara and gained some important positions in the civil judiciary: Knight of the Duke of Ferrara in 1473, he was appointed Governor of Rovigo and Polesine between 1473 and 1484, then Giudice dei Savi from 1497 to 1505, a position that he yielded to his only son Ercole.

He is, however, mainly remembered for his compositions as a humanist poet, a series of refined elegies in Latin and some sonnets in vernacular he wrote as the poet of the court of Borso and Ercole d'Este.

Among his most important works we remember the Eroticon, where, singing his love first for Anzia, then for Filliroe, he clearly manifested in his style the fusion between Latin classics with a deep Petrarchan inspiration. He also wrote epigrams, sermons, eclogues, and an epic poem entitled Borsiade dedicated to Borso d'Este and was the author of a vulgarization of Francesco Petrarca's De vita solitaria.

Ercole Strozzi (Ferrara, 1473 – Ferrara, 1508) was an Italian poet, son of Tito Vespasiano Strozzi, confidant of Lucrezia Borgia at the Este court.

He succeeded his father in the position as Giudice dei Savi , which he gave up after a few months. He wrote elegant elegies and sonnets in Latin, probably better than his father's, while his vernacular sonnets were inspired by the school of Petrarch.

Familiar in the Este court, he became one of the trusted men of the Duchess Lucrezia Borgia when she married Alfonso I d'Este. His mysterious death, which took place by murder by stabbing in a street in Ferrara on the night of June 6, 1508, caused a lot of scandal and it was never cleared who was responsible. Allegedly Alfonso discovered that Ercole was the messenger between his wife Lucrezia and her lover Francesco II Gonzaga and for this reason ordered the death of Ercole.

The works of Tito Strozi, together with the compositions of his son Ercole, were published by Aldus Manutius in 1513, as Strozii poëtae pater et filius., work here presented.

Henry Roughton Hogg (9 February 1846 – 30 November 1923) was a British amateur arachnologist. Hogg was a specialist of the spiders of Australia and New Zealand. He was a fellow and honorary treasurer of the Royal Society of Victoria, as well as a fellow of both the Zoological and Botanical Societies of London. He bequeathed his collections to the Natural History Museum of London.

Conditions: light marks of use but in general a very good copy.

Provenance: I. Two ownership signatures at tile page. II. Paper Ex Libris "Duce natura sequor – Henry Roughton Hogg" pasted at front inside board

References: Renouard 65.10; The Aldine Press, 2001, n. 110;

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