La Faoniade. Inni ed odi tradotti dal testo greco in metro italiano da S[osare] I[tomeio] P[astore] A[rcade, i.e. G. V. Imperiale].

Publication details: [Colophon:] Crisopoli [Parma], Bodoniani,1792,

Rare Book

Not available for sale

Bookseller Notes

The first edition produced using Bodoni type (first edition Naples 1780-86), this is an attractive volume of poems, spuriously attributed to Sappho, by the Neapolitan general, Vincenzo Maria Imperiale, prince of Francavilla (1738-1816). La Faoniade is presented 'as a translation of a previously unknown work by Sappho, newly discovered in true Ossianic fashion by 'the famous Russian scholar Ossur,' who was visiting Cape Leukas and found some papyri in a stone box. When Imperiale presents what he claims to be 'the only complete work we have of Saffo' (xv), he is attempting to replace the Sappho corpus with a 'faoniade', an epic poem to the glories of Aphrodite's fickle boatman. The Faoniade is actually a collection of poems, all of them about Sappho's love for Phaon, 'hymns' addressed less frequently to the gods than to the physical beauty of the perfect young male' (See: Joan DeJean, Fictions of Sappho, 1546-1937, Chicago: 1989).

Description

wide margins; very faint diminishing water stain at the head of the first and last few leaves, smudge to the title and a few fingerprints elsewhere, pp. xv, [1], small 8vo, nineteenth-century binding of full smooth indigo leather, gilt panelled and tooled, spine gilt on raised bands, gilt edges; front joint and boards a little scuffed, scratch to the upper cover, withal a very attractive copy

Bibliography: (Brooks 459)