Fortuna. Colophon: Impressum Bononiae per Io. Antonium Platonide[m] de Benedictis: Civem Bonon. Anno Salutis M.D.IX

4to (214x146 mm). [8] leaves. Collation: a-b⁴. Later quarter vellum (rubbed and worn). Contemporary annotations and reading marks. Title page soiled and with a small hole not affecting the text, some marginal foxing.

The first edition of this poem was printed by Giovanni Antonio Benedetti under the title De fortuna. F. Mar. Mantuae. The author wrote it to comfort Francesco Gonzaga (1466-1519), the 4^th Marquis of Mantua, who was captured by the Venetians on August 9, 1509, while preparing to attack Legnano. The duke remained imprisoned for a year and was released by Pope Julius II. From 1509 to 1510, his wife, Isabella d'Este, held the regency of the duchy. Therefore, the edition was printed after August 1509 (cf. A. Serra-Zanetti, L'arte della stampa in Bologna nel primo ventennio del Cinquecento, Bologna, 1959, p. 186).

Alongside this one, the printer Giovanni Antonio Benedetti published another issue of this edition under the title Fortuna (the present one), which was reprinted in Bologna by Benedetto Faelli in a pirated edition without typographical notes (cf. Serra-Zanetti, op. cit., pp. 186-187). The following year the booklet was also printed in Pesaro by Girolamo Soncino and in Rome by Marcello Silber. Soncino's edition bears the erroneous date 18 June 1509. G. Manzoni (Annali tipografici dei Soncino, Bologna, 1886, II, pp. 222-225), who did not notice the error (Spagnoli could not have written the poem before the capture of the marquis, which occurred, as mentioned, on August 9), considers the Soncino edition to be the first, whereas it did not actually appear until the following year.

G.B. Spagnoli, a Carmelite poet born in Mantua to a Spanish father, studied grammar under G. Tifernate and philosophy in Pavia under Fr. Bagelardi. After a few years of bad friendships and accusations of usury and slander, he entered the Carmelite Order. In his first publication, the De vita beata, he blamed his earlier errors of youth. After gaining the favor of the Duke of Mantua, Spagnoli was put in charge of educating the young heirs of the Gonzaga family. In 1513, he was appointed General of the Order. Regarded by his contemporaries as a new Virgil, he was beatified in 1885 (cf. W. Zabughin, Un beato poeta, Rome, 1918, passim; see also A. Severi, Spagnoli, Battista, detto Battista Mantovano, Battista Carmelita: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 93, Rome, 2018, s.v.).

Edit 16, CNCE78228.