A ‘HIDDEN GEM’ BY GALILEO’S PUPIL
SOLDANI, Jacopo.
Lezione di Jacopo Soldani sopra il Brindisi recitata da lui nell’Accademia Fiorentina il dì 20 di gennaio nel 1597.
Florence, Tipografia della pia casa di Patronato, 1886.
8vo, pp. 30, [2 (blank)]; with woodcut initial and typographic head-pieces, small ornament to title; evenly toned throughout, otherwise an excellent copy; in publisher’s printed wrappers; slight marginal toning; contemporary manuscript bibliographical note loosely inserted.
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Lezione di Jacopo Soldani sopra il Brindisi recitata da lui nell’Accademia Fiorentina il dì 20 di gennaio nel 1597.
First and only edition of satirist Jacopo Soldani’s 1597 debut address to the Accademia Fiorentina on the art of making a toast.
This ‘hidden gem’, derived from a manuscript at the Biblioteca Marucelliana in Florence, is a testament to the rhetorical prowess of the then-eighteen-year-old Soldani (1579–1641), later to become Galileo’s confidant and tutor to Prince Leopoldo de’ Medici. Citing Homer, Horace, and Tibullus, on drinking and making toasts, Soldani weaves a comprehensive account of the cultural significance of wine as a ‘comfort to the human mind’ which ‘clears it of all sadness’, (p. 7, trans.), and the brindisi as a time-honoured gesture of friendship and courtesy, values that would contribute to his later relationship to Galileo.
Soldani attended the Medici court from 1610, where he ‘intertwined the friendly and intellectual in his relationship with Galileo’ (Dizionario biografico degli Italiani), later defending Galileo in his critique of Satira contro i peripatetici (1623) and acting as mediator between Galileo and the Medici family. From 1628 Soldani acted as Aio – close tutor and advisor – to Leopoldo, suggesting new acquisitions for his library and frequently directing him to the works of Galileo. Indeed, Galileo’s ‘final attempt to regain Medici support through his young admirer Prince Leopold … reminiscent of Galileo’s more successful strategy with Cosimo, was mediated by Jacopo Soldani … Soldani’s role at the Medici court was not unlike that of the brokers through whom Galileo had gained Cosimo’s patronage’ (Biagioli).
OCLC traces only two copies outside of Italy, at UCLA and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin; Library Hub finds no copies in the UK.
See Biagioli, Galileo, Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism (2018), pp. 35-36, and Goudriaan, Florentine Patricians and Their Networks: Structures Behind the Cultural Success and the Political Representation of the Medici Court (1600-1660) (2017), pp. 194-95.
