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Piacevoli Poesie (1750) - Giuseppe Marco Antonio Baretti
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Background
Giuseppe Marc’Antonio Baretti (1719 – 1789) is primarily remembered for his frequent travels throughout Italy, England, France, and Portugal, which he recounted in his Lettere familiari ai suoi tre fratelli. Yet, Baretti was also a scholar, linguist, poet, translator, and journalist. His literary career first began in 1747 when he translated the works of Ovid and Pierre Corneille. In 1750, he wrote a volume of poetry, Le piacevoli poesie di Giuseppe Baretti torinese (The Pleasing Poetry of Giuseppe Baretti of Turin). According to Franco Fido, Baretti wrote the set of poetry in a style which imitated that of Fancesco Berni, a 16th-century Italian poet who wrote parodies and burlesque letters—much of it obscene in nature. Unfortunately, despite these writings, Baretti was unsuccessful in securing a position in Turin through which he could support himself. Thus, he left for London in 1751, where he stayed for nine years. While there, he established friendships with famous writers, including Samuel Johnson and Charles Burney. Although Baretti never achieved notable stature as a writer, he was instrumental in increasing the English public’s interest in Italian literature during the Enlightenment.
Count Gasparo Gozzi (1713-1786) was a Venetian poet, prose writer, journalist, and critic. Baretti was a friend and admirer of Gozzi’s younger brother, Carlo Gozzi. Though the circumstances are not known, it is likely the Count came to contribute an introduction to Le piacevoli poesie through Carlo and Baretti’s relationship.
Bibliography
Title from title page: LE PIACEVOLI / POESIE / DI / GIUSEPPE BARETTI
Genre: poetry
Librettist: Giuseppe Marco Antonio Baretti, 1719-1789
Other author: Gasparo Gozzi, 1713-1786
Volume in the UNT Collection: Torino : Filippo Antonio Campana, 1750.
For further reading on Baretti, see:
Bondanella, Peter and Julia Conaway Bondanella, eds. The Macmillan Dictionary of Italian Literature. Macmillan: London, 1979.
Fido, Franco. “Baretti, Giuseppe Marc’Antonio.” The Oxford Companion to Italian Literature, ed. Peter Hainsworth and David Robey, pp. 44-45. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2002.
__________. “The Settecento.” The Cambridge History of Italian Literature, ed. Peter Brand and Lino Pertile, pp. 353-361. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1996.
Flamini, Francesco. A History of Italian Literature. Trans. Evangeline M. O’Connor. The National Alumni, 1907.
Physical
Conservation: Heavy staining; frass; bleed-through; cockling; bent corners.
Binding: Extremely fragile tan paper; very frayed edges; heavy staining on front and back covers; loose binding; some torn pages have been repaired with tape.
Comments: Contains UNT ownership stamps and Hibberd stamps; the final blank page has been cut out.