Pietra del paragone politico [...].

24mo (sl. soiling or foxing, marg. damp stains).

Contemp. overl. vellum, flat spine with titled leather label (rebacked, mod. flyleaves).

Very rare pocket size edition of a violent work (1st Venice, 1615, 4to) written against the Spanish and showing the great hostility Boccalini (1556-1613), Italian from the Marche and governor of Benevento for the Papal States, had for them. It is considered as a third part of his work "Ragguagli di Parnaso, centuria prima [...]" (Venice, 1612), in which, Apollo on Mount Parnassus, receives the complaints of authors, princes and soldiers and distributes justice according to the merits of each particular case. It is the occasion for Boccalini to express, in a satirical way, all his critics on works and actions of his contemporaries. It is said that to escape reprisals of people he hurt in his book, Boccalini left for Venice, actually the only government exempted of attacks, where he died of colic accompanied with fever. However the legend was spread that he died beaten with sandbags by a band of Spanish bravadoes, which seems unlikely as the "Pietra del Paragone" was kept secret by the author and was only published 2 years after his death. The book was often reprinted and also translated in French, English and German.
Ref. Willems 965. - STCN 06409359X. - Cp. Gamba 1852 (1652 ed)., Berghman 470 (1640 ed.) and Rahir (other ed.).