Facetie: Piacevoleze: Fabule: e Motti. Del Piovano Arlotto Prete Fiorentino, homo di grande inzegno. Opera molto dilectevole vulgare in lingua Toscha hystoriata, & novamente impressa. Colophon: Sta[m]pata in Vinegia per Bernardin Bindoni. Ad istantia

8vo (156x102 mm). [88] leaves. Collation: A-L⁸. Title page prited in red and black with a large woodcut vignette at the bottom (the same first used by Rusconi and Zoppino in the 1516 edition). With 16 small woodcut vignette in text. Text printed in two columns. Modern mottled calf, red morocco lettering piece on spine. Some occasional staining, but a good copy.

Extremely rare edition issued by Bernardino Bindoni, who printed the text also in 1538 and 1549. Matteo Pagano, who financed the edition, was active as an editor and a typographer in Venice between 1542 and 1563. Bernardino Bindoni, the brother of Alessandro, Benedetto and Agostino, ran a printing press in Venice from 1533 to 1551 and again in 1562. The date of printing can therefore be placed between 1542 and 1563. This edition contains the same dedication by Bernardo Pacini to Pietro Salviati, as well as the same short biography of Piovano Arlotto, that appear in the earlier editions.

The famous Motti e facezie (‘Mottoes and jokes') was apparently written by a friend of Arlotto's who deliberately remained anonymous and only emerged in seventeen of the “facezie”. The novelty of the Motti, according to a scheme borrowed from humanistic biographies, is that it places the life of the protagonist, Arlotto, at the centre of a book of humorous tales and jokes. The Motti was compiled between 1450 and 1470. The anonymous collector mixed biographical events with themes and topoi of fourteenth-century Tuscan literature, particularly the Decameron, the Trecentonovelle by Franco Sacchetti, the Liber Facetiarum by Poggio Bracciolini, the Pecorone by Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, and the Dialogo di Marcolfo e Salomone. Moreover, the collection's uniqueness lies in its reinterpretation of high literature for a broader audience, employing a lexical style influenced by Tuscan vernacular and popular traditions. Despite the fact that it is not improbable that an early core of the collection may have originated from a private book in which Arlotto jotted down the most curious circumstances of his life, the fact remains that he is the protagonist and not the author of the Motti.

An early group of around 80 facetious tales circulated in manuscript form in Florence, influencing Poliziano and Pulci. Later, some overly licentious pieces were excluded to make way for more edifying ones. Following Arlotto's death, between 1485 and 1488 an anonymous friend compiled a collection of Motti e facezie accompanied by a short biography of Arlotto. The first group of 80 tales was joined by a second group (81-174), essentially drawn from the Tuscan novella and joke tradition of Sacchetti and Bracciolini. During this period, Arlotto lost all historical connotations and became an example of the perfect combination of real character and literary projection. Textual layering and the existence of multiple versions explain the collection's lack of stylistic homogeneity. A third addition was made possibily by a different hand. The aim was to provide posterity with a more edifying religious portrait of Arlotto and to present him as a philosopher. This addition included more tales (175-192 and 202-217), which were hastily and passively taken from a florilegium entitled Libro de la vita de' filosfi e delle loro eleganti sentenze, estratte da Diogene Laerzio e da altri antichissimi autori, which is a vulgarisation of Walter Burleigh's Liber de vita et moribus philosophorum (fl. 1275–1357).

The manuscript and printed traditions clearly demonstrate the composite nature of the work. The editio princeps, from which the numerous later editions derive, was edited in Florence by Bernardo Pacini for Bernardo Zucchetta under the title Motti et Facetie del Piovano Arlotto Prete Fiorentino Piacevole Molto between 1512 and 1516 (cf. Y. Yoneyama, A profile of the “Mottoes and jokes of Piovano Arlotto”, in: “Intercultural Studies”, XXVIII, 2003, pp. 77-108).

Arlotto Mainardi, also known as Arlotto il Pievano or Piovano Arlotto, was born in Florence in 1396. He was the son of a Florentine notary. His education included studies in literature and mathematics. He took his vows at the age of 28, and in 1424, Martin V appointed him as the head of the parish of S. Cresci in Maciuoli, Mugello. He remained in charge until 1482. In 1425, he was ordained as a deacon in the Florence Cathedral. By 1438, Arlotto had left Tuscany, and between May and November 1450, he was in Fabriano, where Pope Nicholas V was residing to escape the plague in Rome. In his role as chaplain to the Florentine merchant fleet Arlotto reached Flanders, Valencia, Provence, the Kingdom of Sicily. There, where he met King Alfonso of Aragon, and London, where he celebrated mass at the invitation of the archdeacon of the cathedral and also made the acquaintance of King Edward V. Of the seven or eight journeys attributed to him in the Motti, only four to Flanders are documented: in 1444 to Bruges, and in 1446, 1448 and 1456. He returned from these journeys with trade goods made of metal and wool. Although the nature of these exchanges is unclear, between 1454 and 1456 he traded with the Archbishop of Florence, Antonino Pierozzi, who is referenced in Motti 19, 36, and 147. Around 1460, he undertook extensive restoration work on the parish church of S. Cresci, which was completed around 1466. He achieved some economic stability before 1473, enjoying an annual income of 200 florins. In 1475, he travelled to Rome for the Jubilee. Arlotto died in Florence in 1484.

The so-called Vita that accompanies the Motti, dedicated to an unknown recipient, was added by the anonymous author for moralistic purposes: to highlight and idealise Arlotto's charitable and philanthropic gifts, and above all to refute the lewd jokes that circulated about him. Many of the Motti's protagonists were acquainted with Arlotto, including Bartolomeo di Tommaso Sassetti, with whom he shared a genuine friendship. Also, many of the episodes narrated in the Motti are corroborated by archival documents, suggesting that Arlotto lived in a context similar to that described in the Motti themselves. He certainly had the ability to move naturally between high society, where he interacted with sovereigns and the de' Medici family, and lower society, where he mixed with peasants and men who frequented churches and taverns. However, it is risky to base the reconstruction of the biographical events of a person like Arlotto solely on the fiction of Motti, given that he quickly became a notable figure in a city like Florence, where news events swiftly became widely circulated anecdotes and tales (cf. G. Crimi, Mainardi, Arlotto, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 67, Rome, 2006, s.v.).

Passano, I, p. 21; Edit 16, CNCE3022; USTC, 811028.