Red Morocco Armorial Binding. DONATI. Ars poetica Alexandri Donati Senensis e Societate Iesu.

Extremely rare first edition, illustrated. The allegorical title page was designed by I.G. and engraved by C.C. This is an important treatise by the Jesuit, Professor of Rhetoric at the Roman College, who later became Prefect of the Schools of Humanity. The arguments are arranged according to Aristotle's Poetics. The work is divided into three books: the first sets out the criteria for poetic creation; the second analyzes the species and forms of poetry, offering a repertoire of poetic genres and techniques; the third discusses the epic, the various types of poetry (eclogue, satire, epigram, elegy, etc.); a detailed analysis of the various types of odes (ode laudatrix, ode vituperatrix, ode consolatrix, etc.) concludes the work. The work, reprinted several times, became a reference model for Baroque poetics.

See Gianfranco Formichetti, ‘Donati’ in DBI, Volume 41, 1992.

Small 8vo. 120 x 80 mm. Armorial binding in red morocco with rich gilt decorations on the covers and spine, coat of arms surmounted by a crown in the center of the covers, gilt edges. Pages [18, including engraved title page and half-title], 432, [28]. Italic, Greek, Roman type; woodcut initial on ?2r leaf; typographical decorations. Defects and losses to the binding.