Author: INNOCENT III (Pope) and Pietro LAURO.
Title: Il disprezzo del mondo opera bellissima & utile e necessaria a cadauno Christiano. Novamente di Latino in volgar tradotta per Pietro Lauro Modonese. Con la tavola de tuute le materie e capitoli che sono ne lopera[!].Venice, Comin de Trino di Monferrato, 1543. 8vo. With a woodcut illustration on the title page, which is repeated at the end, and 12 decorated woodcut initials. Modern gold tooled half red morocco.
Description: 29, [1], [2 blank] ll.Extremely rare first and only edition of Lauro's Italian translation of De miseria condicionis humanae (on the wretchedness of the human condition), also known as Liber de contempt mundi, a very popular and influential 12th-century religious text on ascetism. The present copy has been beautifully bound by the famous bindery of French bookbinders Alain Lobstein and Jean-Paul Laurenchet. We have not been able to trace any other copies of the present edition in sales records, and only 7 in institutions (4 in Italy, 2 in the US, and 1 in Canada).The text is divided into three parts. The first describes the wretchedness of the human body and the various hardships one has to bear throughout life; the second part lists man’s futile ambitions, pleasure, and esteem; and the third part deals with the decay of the human corpse, the anguish of the damned in hell, and the Day of Judgment. The work was written by Lothario dei Conti di Segni (1161-1216), the later Pope Innocent III, and was widely disseminated and quoted in the medieval period. Nearly 700 manuscript copies of it are known, and it was first printed in Strasbourg in ca. 1472. The first Italian translation appeared in 1515, and was made by Agostino da Colonna. Modern editions and translations in English were published in 1955, 1969 and 1978.The present Italian translation, which was only the second, was made by Pietro Lauro from Modena (1508-1568), a poet, scholar and translator of many Latin, Greek and Spanish works in the service of the great Venetian publishers of his time, including Valgris and Giolito. Among his translations are several works by Erasmus, Leon Battista Alberti, Columella, Hippocrates, and many others.The influence the work has had on later books on asceticism, by for example Christine de Pizan, St. Bernardine of Sienna, Chaucer (Of the wreched engendrynge), Erasmus (De comtemptu mundi), Thomas Mann (The magic mountain) and many others, is paramount. It has even had a clear impact on modern works, such as Godard’s film Le Mépris.With the stamp of the French bindery Lobstein-Laurenchet on the front pastedown. The corners of the boards are very slightly scuffed. The work is lightly browned and foxed throughout, a small wormhole in the title page, without affecting any text, the head margin has been cut somewhat short, also without affecting any text. Otherwise in very good condition.l Diz. Biogr. degli Italiani, 64; Edit 16 CNCE 54146; OPAC SBN UM1E017796 (3 copies in Italian libraries); USTC 803031 (3 copies); WorldCat 8455093, 78748459 (3 copies); cf. Kelly, W. E., A study of Innocent III’s De Contemptu Mundi and its influence on English literature (1956); not in STC Italian.

Keywords: [KCRG291IIT91] EARLY PRINTING & MANUSCRIPTS|[KCRG291IIT91] EARLY PRINTING & MANUSCRIPTS -> [KCRGA2UTFHGU] History, Law & Philosophy|[KCRG291IIT91] EARLY PRINTING & MANUSCRIPTS -> [KCRG36P9OEHF] Religion & Devotion|[BFFF1D78AE20] HISTORY, LAW & PHILOSOPHY|