Author: [FORTEGUERRI (Niccolo), Bishop of Ancyra]:
Title: Ricciardetto di Niccolo Carteromaco.
Description: In Parigi [ i. e., Venezia], A spese di Francesco Pitteri Libraio Viniziano, 1738. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 4to, 275 x 200 mms., pp. [ii], xxxvi, 420; [ii], 412, including half-title to volume 2 but no title-page (as issued), engraved portrait frontispiece of "Niccolò Carteromaco," title-page in red and black, with engraved vignette (by F. Zucchi after G. Ghedini), engraved head- and tail-pieces, by F. Zucchi, C. Orsolini, M. Pitteri, G. Cattini after designs by Ghedini, for each of the 30 cantos, attractively bound in contemporary vellum, red morocco labels; natural flaw in paper of frontispiece, slightly affecting portrait, slight chip to lower fore-margin of binding of volume 1, but very good to fine set, from the library of the nineteenth-century collector Roger Wilbraham (1743-1829), and inscribed on recto of front free endpaper of both volumes to that effect by an Italian who attended the sale and purchased this set there: "comprato alla vendita dei libri di R. Wilbraham in Londra il 13 di Giugno 1829." Niccolò Forteguerri (1674-1735) lived in Rome and worked in the Vatican. An accomplished poet, he contributed to anthologies and collections, but this posthumously-published work is his greatest achievement. A slightly satiric and mock-heroic chivalric narrative in octets (ottava rima), it occasionally verges on the risque. In his 1947 book on Shelley, Newman Ivey White maintains that a major impetus for Shelley's poem "The Witch of Atlas" was Fortegurri's Ricciardetto. In this copy, there is an ownership inscription in Italian: "comprato alla vendita dei libri di R. Wilbraham in Londra il 13 di Giugno 1829." In English, this is, "bought at the book sale of R. Wilbraham in London on 13 June 1829". The six-day sale of part of the highly distinguished collection of Roger Wilbraham (1743-1829), Fellow of the Royal Society, antiquary, patron of the arts, and eminent bibliophile, who had a penchant for Italian books, was executed by R.H. Evans in London in June of 1829. The fourth day's sale was indeed on June 13, 1829 ("13 di Giugno 1829"), and this book, indeed this copy, was to be found in lot 1069. The Italian inscription in the copy on offer no doubt shows that the Roger Wilbraham sale of 1829 contained books of such notable interest in Italian literature that even Italian collectors were enthusiastic to attend and vie for the items on display. For the auction record, see the Catalogue of a Valuable Portion of the Library of Roger Wilbraham, Esq., containing All His Rare Articles in Italian Literature, and a Selection from Other Classes ... Which will be Sold by Auction by Mr. Evans, at his House, No. 93, Pall Mall, on Wednesday, June 10, and Five Following Days (Sunday excepted), 1829 (London: Printed by W. Nicol, 1829), lot 1069, p. 52. For recent scholars' opinions on the influence of Forteguerri's Ricciardetto on Shelley, see Michael O'Neill, Anthony Howe, and Madeleine Callaghan, The Oxford Handbook of Percy Bysshe Shelley (2013), page 360; and the extensive glossing on the topic in Kelvin Everest, ed., Shelley: Selected Poems (Routledge, 2023). It is certain that Shelley read and praised the work, as Everest quotes Shelley remarking in a letter, "We are reading Ricciardetto. I think it admirable, especially the assault of the Giants…" (page 508).

Keywords: poetry parody literature


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