[ART & ILLUSTRATION]. Bertoldo con Bertoldino e Cacasenno. Inn Ottava Rima. Con Argomenti, Allegore, Annotazioni, e Figure in Rame

4to.  285 x 215 mm., [11 ¼ x 8 ½ inches].  [20], 346, [2], 128 pp.  Illustrated with an engraved frontispiece, title-page vignette, 20 full-page engravings designed by G. C. Crespi.  Bound in contemporary vellum, red leather title-label on spine; minor soiling to vellum boards, an old  partial ring discoloring a small part of the upper board, perhaps from a glass being set upon the binding; some minor foxing the margins of the preliminary leaves.  Otherwise, a very nice copy

First edition in verse of the famous work by G. C. Croce, with literary contributions by P. Riva, P. B. Balbi, G. P. Zanotti, Baraffuldi, and others, with 128 pages of notes by G. A. Barotti.  The 20 large plates, were both designed and mostly engraved by Giuseppe Maria Crespi, with some help by his student Lodovico Mattioli. 

This edition had a wide reception and the text in ottava rima became the basis for numerous editions.  For its iconographic apparatus and the elegance of the printing it is considered the most beautiful Bolognese book of the 18th century and one of the most representative of the entire Italian 18th century.

Gamba calls it a

"Beautiful edition.   The twenty Cantos are by various fine minds, and among these are the two Zanottis, Baruffaldi, Zampieri, Amadesi, Flaminio Scarselli etc. Although Canto VI bears the name of Francis on its forehead, we know it was the work of Giampietro Zanottii. . . Giuseppe Maria Crespi, known as the Spaniard, invented the figures, which were carved in the pictorial style of Salvator Rosa; but attributing the work to Lodovico Mattioli to gain him fame and renown., 1 folding plate of ancient inscriptions, and 20 engraved tail pieces.”

Cicognara adds,

“This edition has become very rare due to the picturesque taste of the plates, and because the playful and pleasant Poem, having been in everyone's hands, has been worn out and been dispersed.”

Gamba, Bartolomeo, Serie dei Testi di Lingua Italiana (1828), no, 1818.  Cicognara, Lodovico, Catalogo Ragionato dei Libri d’Arte, no. 1083.