HONOURING THE SON OF A PROMINENT ART COLLECTOR

Bettoli, Uberto Antonio: Componimenti poetico-epigrafici allusivi in parte agli avvenimenti presenti dedicati a sua eccellenza il sig. marchese don Alfonso Tacoli Canacci de’ Marchesi di San Possidonio patrizio Reggiano, Ferrarese, e Fiorentino gentiluomo di camera, e colonnello di sua Altezza Reale l’Infante di Spagna don Ferdinando di Borbone Duca di Parma, Piacenza, Guastalla &c &c. Firenze, Nella Stamperia Bonducciana, 1799.

Only edition, a very rare book of poetic-epigraphic compositions to commemorate the passing of Ferdinando Tacilo Canacci (1781– 1799), who died shortly after his eighteenth birthday. He was the son of Italian Marchese Alfonso Tacilo Canacci (1724–1801), a notable art collector whose extensive collection received its own ‘Catalogue raisonné’ in 1796. Alfonso, to whom this book is dedicated, outlived his son by just two years.

Two of the paintings in Canacci’s collection, including a portrait of Giuliano de’Medici by Botticelli, are now on display in the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C.

Componimenti was written by Uberto Antonio Bettoli (1766–1855), a doctor of both medicine and philosophy. Bettoli’s preface to Componimenti uses the humility topos, a common rhetorical strategy whereby the writer claims to be unworthy of the task at hand. It was printed a few months after Ferdinando’s death. 

The present copy has 28 pages, and we have identified another copy (details available) with 28 pages also. The copy in the Biblioteca Comunale di Trento has 32 pages according to OCLC. There is no obvious text missing in the present copy. The title page and final page are slightly soiled, which suggests that this copy existed earlier in an unbound state.

Details

Printed. One volume, 26.2 x 19.2 cms in binding, quarto, pp. 28 [possibly wanting two (blank?) leaves at end; see discussion above]. Collation: π⁴ b–c⁴ π². Decorative borders on all printed pages including title page.

Condition: Browning to pages. Title page and p. 28 are slightly soiled and have minor red ink streaks/stains to top and outer margins respectively.

Bound in modern marbled paper-covered boards. One free endpaper at front and one at rear. Pastedowns at front and rear. Minor wear to paper at outer corners. One faint pencil mark on front cover. Marbled pattern on rear cover slightly smudged.

Provenance:

1. Miscellaneous writing trials and/or accidental strokes on title page, most in pencil but one in pen, all relatively small and faint.
2. Binder’s note(?) faintly visible through front pastedown, but difficult to read (T<….> So<..>a c<….> v<….>).

Bibliography:

Not in SBN/ICCU. OCLC shows just one other copy worldwide (Biblioteca Comunale di Trento).

‘Bettoli’, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, volume 9 (1967). Last accessed 28 May 2021 via https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/bettoli_(Dizionario-Biografico)

Bibliothèque Nationale de France Data for Alfonso Tacoli Canacci, last accessed 28 May 2021 via https://data.bnf.fr/fr/15526991/alfonso_tacoli_canacci/

Bibliothèque Nationale de France Data for Ferdinando Tacoli Canacci, last accessed 28 May 2021 via https://data.bnf.fr/fr/15526847/ferdinando_tacoli_canacci/

Catalogue raisonné, ou description exacte de plusieurs excellens tableaux...dans un recueil appurtenant à monsieur le marquis Alphonse Tacoli Canacci à Florence (Parma, 1796). Digitized copy available via BNF Gallica, last accessed 28 May 2021 via https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k6431040t.texteImage

‘Collections > Tacoli Canacci, Alfonso, Marchese’, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Last accessed 29 March 2021 via https://www.nga.gov/collection/provenance-info.28122.html

Talignani, Alessandra, ‘La Collezione dei dipinti toscani del Marchese Alfonso Tacoli Canacci’, Parma nell'Arte (1986): 31–42. [Currently unable to access].