Vita Costumi e Scritti del Conte Giammaria Mazzuchelli, Patrizio Bresciano. Brescia, Bossini, 1766.
First Edition. 8vo, engraved portrait frontispiece and pp. [iv], 5-120, title-page vignette, in contemporary vellum, a little bit dusty and stained but sound and internally a clean and crisp copy, red morocco label lettered in gilt, with the contemporary inscription ‘1767 di Faustino Gussago’, all edges marbled.
First edition of this comprehensive biography and bibliography of Giammaria Mazzuchelli (1707-1765). He is mostly remembered for his vastly ambitious work, the Scrittori d’Italia, 1753-1763, which, though it only extended to the first two letters of the alphabet, was widely praised for its biographical and bibliographical detail. In addition to his work as literary historian, Mazzuchelli was also an important cultural figure, as is clear from the list of his correspondents, which include Carli, Beccaria, Belgrado, Maffei, Muratori, Volpi and Tiraboschi. For a Brescia printing, it is also worth noting that Mazzuchelli was the founder of the Academia Mazzuchelliana, the Brescia literary society.
OCLC and RLIN list copies at Oxford, Göttingen, Stanford, Berkeley, Newberry, Illinois, Harvard and Duke.