first edition
1603; 1609 · Venice
by Passi, Giuseppe, 1569-1620.
Venice: Giacomo Antonio Somasco (1603); Deuchino & Pulciani (1609), 1603; 1609. First editions. Very Good. 2 volumes, quarto (20 cm); I: [20], 119, [1 blank] leaves; II: [24], 136 pages. Printer's device on title page. Woodcut initials and ornaments. Italic and roman type; shoulder notes. 1603 volume bound in flexible vellum, titled in ink on top edge; 1609 volume in vellum over boards, titled in ink on spine. Both volumes with early ownership inscriptions.
Vinciana 3486-87; Michel VI, 86 (1603); BM Italian c17, p. 662 (1603)
In 1599, Giuseppe Passi published a viciously misogynistic tract, "Dei donneschi difetti," in the context of the ongoing series of back-and-forth polemics in the so-called "querelle des femmes" that straddled the 16th- and 17th centuries. That book, often reprinted, inspired several important responses from writers such as Lucrezia Marinelli and Moderata Fonte, staking out some of the earliest terms of feminist literature and powerfully putting Passi to shame. Scholarship tends to view the two works offered here as Passi's attempt to make up for the excesses of that earlier book by producing an equally viscious catalogue on "the sordidness of men." It catalogues all the ways in which men are greedy, arrogant, mean, ambitious, ungrateful, cruel, vain, and dissolute. Of course, it was a commercial success, so much so that a second volume of masculine faults followed. In true humanist fashion, the catalogue of deficiencies is illustrated with examples drawn from classical and medieval myth and history, effectively resolving into an encyclopedia of narratives about bad men. Both volumes dedicated to Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. (Inventory #: 6839)
Vinciana 3486-87; Michel VI, 86 (1603); BM Italian c17, p. 662 (1603)
In 1599, Giuseppe Passi published a viciously misogynistic tract, "Dei donneschi difetti," in the context of the ongoing series of back-and-forth polemics in the so-called "querelle des femmes" that straddled the 16th- and 17th centuries. That book, often reprinted, inspired several important responses from writers such as Lucrezia Marinelli and Moderata Fonte, staking out some of the earliest terms of feminist literature and powerfully putting Passi to shame. Scholarship tends to view the two works offered here as Passi's attempt to make up for the excesses of that earlier book by producing an equally viscious catalogue on "the sordidness of men." It catalogues all the ways in which men are greedy, arrogant, mean, ambitious, ungrateful, cruel, vain, and dissolute. Of course, it was a commercial success, so much so that a second volume of masculine faults followed. In true humanist fashion, the catalogue of deficiencies is illustrated with examples drawn from classical and medieval myth and history, effectively resolving into an encyclopedia of narratives about bad men. Both volumes dedicated to Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. (Inventory #: 6839)
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