L'Istoria della Volgar Poesia Scritta da Giovan Mario Crescdimbeni Canonico di S. Maria in Cosmedin, e Custode d'Aracadia. In questa seconda impression,e fatta d'ordine RAagunnanza degli Arcadi, corretta, risformata, e notabilmente ampliata. All'Altezza Serenissma, del Principe Antonio di Parma

In Roma, Nella Stamperia d'Antonio de' Rossi all Piazza di Cerli, 1714. 4to, 212 mx 156, pp. [xii], 487 [488 - 502 index], engraved vignette on title-page, 6 historiated initials for each of the six chapters, contemporary marginal note in ink on page 90, contemporary vellum, yapp edges lettered in ink on spine; some worming and staining to top margin of a2 and a5, minor worming on rear paste-down end-paper, but a very good copy. The Italian poet and literary critic Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni (1663 - 1728) was one of the founders of the Accademia dell'Arcadia in1690. He became general guardian after the expulsion of Gian Vincenzo Gravina , the other founder of the Academy. Gravina had in mind a very ambitious cultural renewal project for the academy, but the other Arcadians preferred the more moderate proposal of Crescimbeni himself, which aimed to restore literary good taste against the baroque degenerations of the previous century. Crescimbeni introduced Francesco Petrarca as a literary model and committed himself to making the Academy an important circle of men of letters and educated men throughout Italy . He was among the first to trace (also through the collection of testimonies, documents and authoritative sources) a historical profile of Italian poetry. The present work was first published in 1698 as Bellezza della volgar poesia, which is made up of eight dialogues containing explications of the aethetic principles of the Academy.