WITH UNPUBLISHED POEMS ON HORSE-RACING
[POETRY.]
‘Trattato della [poesia Toscana]’.
[Asti?, 1780-1782.]
Manuscript on paper, 4to (195 x 150 mm), pp. [75] + blanks; in Italian and Latin, neatly written in brown ink in a single hand, up to 30 lines per page; some occasional light staining, some creasing to corners, one bifolium loosely inserted; sewn longstitch in contemporary carta rustica, spine reinforced with printed patterned paper at an early date; some losses to spine, corners bumped and chipped, a few ink stains to spine.
A manuscript treatise on the method of composing poetry in Italian, with numerous examples from renowned authors and eight apparently unpublished poems about horse-racing, with references to Arabian, Sardinian, English, and African horses, as well as to a firework display.
The treatise considers various metres and forms of Italian poetry, providing several examples from the oeuvre of famous Italian poets, including Luigi Alamanni (ff. 11r-11v.), Ludovico Ariosto (ff. 13r-13v), Petrarch (ff. 22r, 29r), and Jacopo Sannazaro (ff. 22v, 35r-36r). The manuscript also contains eight apparently unpublished sonnets composed on the occasion of the 1781 and 1782 Palio di Asti, an annual festival culminating with a bareback horse race (ff. 30v-34v), offering a remarkable witness to the history of the Palio di Asti and of horse racing more generally.
The poems:
1. Esponendosi alla corsa del palio il caval Arabo da alcuni giovani astigiani (‘On the presentation at the Palio race of the Arab horse by some young men of Asti’).
2. Presentandosi al corso del Palio della città d’Asti il cavallo sardo detto il Sardino (‘On the presentation at the race of the Palio of the city of Asti of the Sardinian horse known as Sardino’).
3. Per la vittoria del Palio riportata la terza volta dal cavallo inglese (‘For the Palio victory obtained for the third time by the English horse).
4. Esponendosi al solito corso del Palio il cavallo africano sotto gli auspici di S. Secondo (‘On the presentation at the usual race of the Palio of the African horse under the auspices of S. Secondo’).
5. Esponendosi al solito corso del Palio il cavallo spagnolo da alcuni Confratelli della SS. Annunziata d’Asti (‘On the presentation at the usual race of the Palio of the Spanish horse by some brothers of the Confraternity of the Santissima Annunziata’).
6. Nell’occasione che s’incendia la solita macchina de’ fuochi artifiziati per la solennità di S. Secondo martire (‘On the occasion of igniting the usual machine of fireworks for the solemnity of St Secondo Martyr).
7. Del cavallo barbaro esposto alla corsa del Palio l’anno 1782 (‘On the Berber horse presented at the Palio race the year 1782’).
8. Del cavallo inglese che Baliro conduce alla corsa del Palio nel 1782 (‘On the English horse lead by Baliro to the Palio race in 1782’).
