HECATELEGIUM

Paris: Imprimé pour Isadore Liseux et ses amis, 1885. First edition thus. Near fine.. First vernacular translation of these suppressed Latin elegies that include the most explicit poetic expressions of homosexual desire of the Italian Renaissance. The HECATELEGIUM was first published in Florence in 1489 by a poet so notorious for his open homosexuality that Machiavelli named him in a 1501 letter as one of those poets who would have been burned at the stake had they not been protected by powerful cardinals ("qui nisi haberent refugium in asylum nunc huius, nunc illius Cardinalis combusti iam essent"). Massimi's fame during his long life was nearly extinguished over the centuries of suppression and silence that followed, which saw a heavily bowdlerized edition of the HECATELEGIUM published in Parma in 1691 and this privately printed edition in French and Latin only in 1885, the first uncensored edition since 1523. Though the Latin of this edition is complete, certain obscene Latin words are printed in Greek rather than French in the facing translation, still deemed too filthy to be read by anyone without a protective classical education. Undertaken by the shadowy publisher Antoine-Isidore Liseux (1835-1894), it was printed in Liseux's elegant typographical style, in a "private" edition of 120 copies. Rare and important. 9.75'' x 6.5''. Later three-quarter cherry-red calf over marbled boards (signed "Canape Belz"), with matching marbled endpapers. Edition of 120 copies, this copy no. 80. Text in French and Latin. xvi, 354, [2] pages. Minor rubbing to extremities. Old shelf label removed from head of spine. Else bright, clean, and sound. (Inventory #: 53538)