MICHELANGELO - CELLINI, Benvenuto - TARSIA, Giovanni Maria. Oratione o vero discorso fatto nell'essequie del divino Michelagnolo Buonarroti. Con alcuni sonetti, e prose latine e volgari di diversi, circa il disparere occorso tra gli scultori, e pittori.
Fiorenza, appresso Bartolomeo Sermartelli, 1564
8vo; 201 x 146 mm. Nineteenth-century marbled paper boards, housed in modern dark blue cloth folding case. Italic and some roman type, 40 lines. Collation: A-C4 D6: 18 unnumbered leaves. Title-page with Medici's woodcut device, woodcut initials. Illegible annotation on the title page. “J[ose] Maria di Candia", nineteenth-century inscription in purple ink on title-page and printed shelflabel pasted to verso of endleaf. Some marginal dampstaining, Boards slightly rubbed.
First edition of the funeral oration delivered upon the death of Michelangelo by the Florentine man of letters Giovanni Maria Tarsia (fl. 1564-1607). The volume also contains his dedication to the painter Agnolo Bronzino, a discorso by Benvenuto Cellini "on the difference between sculptors and painters", verses by Antonfrancesco Grazzini detto "Il Lasca" in response to Cellini, and verses contributed by a "B.P. Flor", Giovanni Girolamo Fiorelli, and Michele Capri. It concludes with a series of sonnets in praise of Michelangelo.
A very important work for the description of the complex funeral apparatus, the authorship of which is attributed to Borghini.