Lotti, Lotto
Bologna 1657 – 1714 Venice

Rimedi per la sonn da liezr alla banzòla. Dialoghi del Dottor Lotto Lotti nel suo idioma naturale Bolognese. Dedicati alle oneste donne e cittadine di Bologna per le Veglie Inuernali.

Milan, Carlo Federico Gagliardi, 1703

quarto (185 × 135 mm), (70) ff. signed a⁴ A–P⁴ Q⁶ and paginated (8) 1–132, plus engraved plate (inserted after title-page) depicting ten women ‘alla banzòla’ signed Giac. Giovannini sc.

provenance conte Guglielmo Libri-Carrucci della Sommaia (1809–1869), his sale in Paris by L.C. Silvestre & P. Jannet, ‘Catalogue de la bibliothèque de M. L.’, Paris, 28 June 1847, lot 2111 — sale by Duquesne, ‘Catalogue d’une magnifique collection de livres, presque tous reliés en maroquin, et provenant de la Bibliothèque d’un Amateur’, Ghent, 28 November 1857, lot 78 — Angelo Marzorati (1862–1932), his collection dispersed by Libreria Italiane Riunite Antiquariato, Catalogo della Biblioteca Marzorati (Bologna 1932), no. 544 — Marino Parenti (1900–1963), exlibris, his library dispersed by Libreria Il Polifilo, Milan — M. & L. Sordelli, exlibris, and the same owners’ red inkstamp S (within a circle) on endpaper — Christie’s, ‘Libri, autografi e stampe’, Rome, 27 November 2002, lot 225

Binding chipped at head and foot of the spine, joints cracking, otherwise in good state of pres­ervation.

binding nineteenth-century red morocco, stamped on endleaf Delaunay Rel. à Paris.

First edition of six satirical dialogues in Bolognese dialect celebrated for their social observation of the theatrical and musical life which the author knew as a librettist and for their influence on the tradition of the commedia improvvisa. Of the 4099 verses, 1219 are said to depend on comedies by the play­wright Carlo Maria Maggi published in 1700.¹ In turn, the most original of Lotti’s six dialogues, ‘La cantatriz’, was extensively plagiarised.²

We can trace fifteen other copies of this first edition, none in North American libraries:

● Bologna, Archiginnasio, Fratelli-Sorbelli, three copies³ ● Bologna, Biblioteca d’arte e di storia di San Giorgio in Poggiale, four copies⁴ ● Cambridge, Cambridge University Library, S740.d.70.1 ● Florence, Biblioteca Comunale Centrale, Fondo Corrado Ricci, no. 448 ● London, British Library, 11427.e.25 ● Melbourne, University Library, 851.59 L884R ● Milan, Biblioteca nazionale Braidense, 23.2. A. 0022 ● Milan, Biblioteca comunale cen­trale, Vet. J Vet. 45.-1 ● Vicenza, Biblioteca civica Bertoliana, A 008 011 011 ● Weimar, Herzogin-Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek Dd 8 : 211

Image

According to their catalogue entries, many lack the engraving by Giacomo Maria Giovannini (1667–1717) depicting ten women ‘alla banzola’, which is present in our copy (the print is unknown to both Bartsch and Le Blanc).

Subsequent editions of 1704, 1712, 1732, 1740 (latter as ‘sesta edizione’) are recorded, none by more than a handful of copies.

references Luigi Frati, Opere della bibliografia bolognese che si conservano nella Biblio­teca municipale di Bologna (Bologna 1888–1889), ii, col. 858 no. 7036; facsimile reprint in the series Biblioteca dialettale bolognese, 6–7 (1992)