Le miserie de li amanti.

Venice: Bernardino de Vitali, 1533. First edition. Very Good. Quarto (21 cm); [90] leaves, including final blank. In modern polished calf, titled in gilt on spine. Gilt dentelles. Some very light dampmarks through latter half of text. Reference: BM Italian, p. 631; Haym, III, p. 44; Hoepli, Cento Libri Piacevoli, 1936, n. 87; Jules Gay, Bibliographie des principaux ouvrages relatifs à amour, p. 205.

Inspired by Sanazzaro's Arcadia, this pastoral tale in prose and verse by a physician from Salò is set along the shores of Lake Garda. It is in fact a series of dialogues on love: what is it, how does it manifest itself, and how does it feel? Sexual love is not ignored in the discussion, which may be why the book was feverishly pursued by the youth of the 16th century, and heavily underlined and rumpled to the point that few copies survive. It is a true rarity of Italian pastoral literature and Renaissance ideas of gender and affection.