Il Pastor Fido, The faithfull Shepherd. A Pastoral Written in Italian by Battista Guarini, a Knight of Italie. And now Newly Translated out of the Original

London, Princed by R. Raworth, M DC XLVII. 1647. Small folio, 202 x 158 mms., pp. [xii], 223 [224 blank], including engraved portrait by Thomas Cross of Guarini as frontispiece, engraved plate opposite first page of text, contemporary calf, expertly rebacked with old spine and black leather label laid down, with ducal crest imprinted in blind on front cover. A very good copy. Il Pastor Fido was first performed in honour of the nuptials of the Duke of Savoy and Catharine of Austria in 1585 and published in 1590 in Venice; it was frequently reprinted thereafter. Guarini (1538-1612) "is remembered for the immensely popular and influential pastoral play, Il pastor fido (1589; The Faithful Shepherd), which stirred up a far-reaching critical debate. Guarini's controversial innovation was in mixing the noble and sentimental styles to create a new genre, his "pastoral tragicomedy," which went far beyond its model, Tasso's Aminta, in combining heroic and pastoral elements. He added his own voice to the critical discussion with his defense of tragicomedy, Compendio della poesia tragicomedia (1603). Admirers of the pastoral genre throughout Europe ensured the continuing popularity and influence of II pastor fide for at least 150 years after its publication. Its first English translator was Sir Edward Dymoke, who had visited Guarini while traveling in Italy (c. 1590-91) and whose Faithfull Shepheard was published in 1602 (repr. 1633). The most enduringly popular English translation, however, was that by Sir Richard Fan-shawe (1647). It has been republished in a critical edition by Peter Davidson of The Poems and Translations of Sir Richard Fanshawe (2 vols, Oxford, 1997-99)" (what-when-how: online).