ITALIAN IN LONDON

Rolli, Paolo Antonio: Rime [...] dedicate del medesimo all' eccellenza di My Lord Bathurst. Londra, per Giovanni Pickard 1717.

Only edition of an early English publication by a celebrated Italian Londoner, the translator and librettist Paolo Antonio Rolli (1687-1765). Rolli lived in England from 1715/16 to 1744 and "was a leading figure in the Italian circle and a cultural mediator between England and Italy" (ODNB). He was made Fellow of the Royal Society in 1729. The several English dedicatees of poems include the literary patron and Tory politician Earl Bathurst; the aide-de-camp of the Duke of Marlborough Richard (later Viscount) Molesworth; and the great Italian patron the fourth Earl of Burlington.

Ex libris William, created (1725) Viscount Bateman, Whig politician and Fellow of the Royal Society.

Details

8vo., pp. 158 [2]. With frontispiece, engraved by B. Baron after G. Grisoni. Title-page with eagle vignette, the same device on recto of final leaf (verso blank). Tailpieces. Some light foxing, a gathering browned, a very good copy, bound in contemporary dark calf, ruled in gilt, gilt sides, spine with gilt designs and red morocco gilt label. Binding neatly repaired, spine relaid. Edges mottled red. Armorial bookplate of Rt. Hon. William Ld. Viscount Bateman (see above).

ESTC T101826.