COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE.
VALENTINI, FRANCESCO. 1789-1862. Tratatto su la commedia dell'arte, ossia improvvisa.... Berlin: Wilhelm Wittich, 1826.
BOUND WITH: Abhandlung uber die Comödie aus dem Stegreif und die Italienischen Masken.... Berlin: Ludwig Wilhelm Wittich, 1826.
4to (280 x 223 mm). 20 hand-colored aquatint plates. Early 20th-century quarter red morocco and cloth, gilt titles and decoration on spine. Repairs to joints near spine ends, covers a little rubbed, margins somewhat trimmed (just touching plate numbers on a few plates), corners of front blank and title slightly chipped, scattered spotting and browning.

Valentini was a professor of linguistics in Berlin, and the text of this work (appearing here in both Italian and German, as called for) was originally delivered as a lecture. The 20 plates of characters and scenes from the Commedia dell'arte were made after drawings by Johann Heinrich Stürmer. The commedia dell'arte originated in the 16th century, as an improvised festival featuring parades, street performers, and elaborate costumes and masks. It became a professional theatrical form with an established repertory and became popular in Germany after the publication of Goethe's Römische Carneval in 1789. Rare. Colas 2956; Hiler S. 870; Lipperheide Ub 7.