I Promessi Sposi: Storia Milanese del Secolo XVII. First 2 vols of 3

Livorno: G. P. Pozzolini, 1827. ~Original full green calf, double gilt fillets and blind frames to boards. Low raised bands, blind and gilt decor, and two green gilt labels to spines. Gilt decor to board edges. 8vos (14 x 21.9cm). Spines darkened. Fading to boards near top of boards, most noticeably to front board of vol. I. Mild wear to board and spine edges. Wear to bases and tops of spines, with splitting just starting at rear bottom hinge of vol. I and top 1cm spine of vol. I frayed. All edges speckled brown, top edges darkened. Splitting to endpapers at gutters, but hinges holding firm. Owner's signature of John Frederick Pinney dated 1829 to inside front board of both vols. Likely John Frederick Pinney (1773-1845) of Somerton Erle Somerset and Berkeley Square, slave owner. Volumes I and II of three. Almost certainly one of the eight pirated editions that were published in the same year as the first edition of Manzoni's famous novel: 'I Promessi Sposi, first published in 1827, was an immediate bestseller, so popular in fact that within a year of its appearance the official version went through nine printings and, in this same period, no less than eight pirated editions of the book were published' (Povolo, 2014, The Novelist and the Archivist, pp. 1-2). 'In 1827 alone eight pirate editions appeared, two in Florence, two in Turin, and one each in Livorno, Lugano, Naples and Paris. Since Italy was still a mosaic of small states, piracy was difficult to suppress' (Burke, 2008. "Three Approaches to Book History," Modern Intellectual History, 5.2, p. 370). An incomplete early edition of this significant text in original binding. I set only on WordlCat. ~Robust packaging. All UK orders sent with tracking, overseas orders on request. . Pirate edn. Hardback. Good+. xi, 328 + 353pp. Binding sound, text unmarked.