Elogio Storico de Conte Commendatore Gian-Rinaldo Carli

8vo.  220 x 130 mm., [7 ¾ x 5 ¼ inches].  xvi, 285, [3] pp.  Illustrated with an engraved oval portrait and one head piece engraving designed by Francesco Mingardi and engraved by Francesco Novelli.  Bound in contemporary paste paper boards, paper label with title in ink on spine.  Boards are a bit soiled, but generally a very good copy.

First biography of Gian Rinaldo Carli, the famous Italian scientist, economist and government minister who in 1781-83 published his famous book, Delle Lettere Americane.  Carli based his writing on an “immense knowledge which embraced the evidence of myths, traditions, customs, laws, languages, science, geography, and cosmography, . . .and made his work a comparative study of the peoples of the Old and New Worlds to prove his thesis of fundamental unity and resemblance.  All humanity is one since it derives from a common source. . .”.  He wrote this book as a challenge to the theory of Cornelius de Pauw who published his work Recherches philosophiques sur les Américains, in Berlin in 1768-69.  Pauw conclusions stated that “the condition of the savage could be only one of misery, baseness and barbarism” and that “the climate of American was such that it induced a fatal degeneration in all subject forms of life, whether plant, animal, or human.”

Carli’s book, sent to Benjamin Franklin by the bookseller Lorenzo Manini, arrived in Philadelphia in 1783.  It was immediately embraced by Franklin and American patriots and Carli’s conclusion that “the spirit of America” tempered by liberty and tolerance, would show Europeans the way to happiness as promised by the Enlightenment thinkers.

Luigi Bossi, a noted antiquarian, historian, librarian, and member of the cultural elite in Milan, was a correspondent of Franklin and an ardent supporter of the unification movement that was being nurtured in Italy at the end of the 18th century.  He was a friend of Carli and saw in his work the way forward for himself and those who saw the future of mankind in a positive light.  As a member of the Italian enlightenment, Bossi was a lover of liberty who viewed the American Revolution against Great Britain as a signal for Italian nationalists to shake off the yoke of control exercised over the Italy by the French and Austrian occupation.  His biography of Carli was a testament to the life of singular Italian but symbolic of the potential of unifying the people who lived on the peninsula and creating an elected government working for the benefit of the Italian public.

Antonio Pace, Benjamin Franklin and Italy, pp. 134-36. Wright Howes, U.S. Iana, C-149, P-142.  Joseph Sabin, Bibliotheca Americana, Dictionary of Books Relating to America. No. 6462.  Lucia Sebastiani, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, v. 13, (1971).