ANNOTATED COPY OF THE MOST IMPORTANT WORK ON ART OF PERSUASION

Aristoteles - Caro, Annibale. Rettorica d'Aristotile fatta in lingua toscana dal commendatore Annibal Caro. Con privilegio. In Venetia (Venice): Al segno della Salamandra, 1570.

4to (205 x 142 mm); later vellum over boards, richly gilt spine with leather title pieces, sprinkled edges, marbled endpapers, silk marker; pp. [8] (last leaf, a4, blank, here wanting), 270, [2]; text in Italian, printed in italics.
Large woodcut printer's device at title-page and at verso of final leaf; historiated woodcut head-letters, larger at the beginning of the three books and smaller at the beginning of each chapter; dedicatory letter to Cardinal Ferdinando de Medici, made by Giambattista Caro in Rome, on 14 June, 1570.

First edition of the Italian translation of the work Retorica (Rhetoric) by Aristotle, made by Annibal Caro, posthumously published by his nephew, Giambattista Caro.

Aristotle (384–322 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and scientist. His writings cover many subjects – including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theater, music, rhetoric, linguistics, politics and government – and constitute the first comprehensive system of Western philosophy. At the request of Philip of Macedonia, he also tutored Alexander the Great between 356 and 323 BCE.

Annibale Caro (1507–1566) was an Italian writer and poet, mostly famous for his activity as a translator.

Provenance: Ex libris with the coat of arms of a noble family on a label glued at first fly-leaf verso. Old marginal handwritten notes at many leaves, 4 pp. ms. notes bound between pp. 254-255.

References: IT\ICCU\BVEE\003478. CNCE, 2974. OCLC, 54281197, 84122090 and 15389346 (copies in USA, UK, Spain and Germany). Cranz/Schmitt 108.559. Hoffmann I 353. Gamba 1211. Adams A-1953. STCItalian (BL London) Suppl. p. 16. Not in Machiels.

Some browning and spotting at the first leaves. A blank leaf wanting before the text. Very good copy.