Unravelling Enigmas
[TARONI, Giovanni Battista, pseud.] ‘Giovanna Statira BOTTINI’.
Cento nodi da sciogliersi proposti al genio de suoi amorevoli … Bologna, Gaspare de’ Franceschi, 1765.
8vo, pp. 36; woodcut ornament to title; slight foxing throughout, but a very good copy nonetheless; bound in nineteenth-century half blue straight-grained morocco with patterned sides, spine gilt in compartments, green silk place-marker; extremities a little rubbed.
Extremely rare edition of one hundred widely imitated riddles, published under the female anagrammatic pseudonym ‘Giovanna Statira Bottini’.
First published (without solutions) in 1718 as Cento nodi in ottava rima da sciogliersi proposti da Giovanna Statira Bottini, these enigmas were devised by the secular priest Giovanni Battista Taroni, best known for the ten oratorios he composed in Bologna between 1694 and his death in 1727. Taroni’s original hundred riddles, beginning with the foetus in utero and ending with a corpse ready for burial, were plagiarised and appropriated by countless riddle-writers, also appearing in almanacks and periodicals. Among the enigmas included here are head lice, pond turtles, cicadas, spit-roasted chicken, and face-powder.
No copies of any edition traced in OCLC, Library Hub, or KVK. ICCU finds three copies in Italy of an edition printed by de’ Franceschi, undated but otherwise matching ours.
Melzi, p. 145; Santi, Bibliografia della enigmistica 488.