Oratione di M. Claudio Tolommei, ambasciador di Siena: recitata dinanzi al Christianissimo Rè di Francia, Henrico II. A Compiegna il meze di Decembre, 1552. Insieme alcuni sonetti fatti dal medesimo, in laude de l'Illustrissima Madama Margherita di F

WITH 9 SONNETS FOR THE NEWLY BORN MARGARET OF VALOIS

8vo (145x98 mm). [20] leaves. Collation: A-E⁴. Roman and italic types. Later colored paper wrappers. Large stain to the outer margin.

Claudio Tolomei, scion of a noble and ancient family of Siena, studied law in his native city and entered the service of several popes. In 1526 he participated to the attack against Siena ordered by Pope Clement VII, what brought to him a sixteen-year exile from that city. He then found a patron in cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, who sent him on a mission to Vienna. He became officer of justice at the court of Luigi Farnese, duke of Parma and after the assassination of the latter, he lectured for a short time on Aristotle's moral philosophy at Padua. In 1548 he returned to Rome and was elected bishop of Korčula (a small island in the Adriatic).

In 1552, Tolomei was sent as ambassador of the Sienese Republic to French King Henry II, along with Niccolò Borghesi, Enea Piccolomini and Giulio Vieri, to plead for protection against Charles V. After spending time in Florence, where he met Duke Cosimo I and Paolo Giovio, he unsuccessfully delivered his Oratione to the king in December of that year.

The Oratione was later published several times, from 1553 onwards, in Italy and France (also in translation), both separately and in oration collections printed between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Despite his desire to return to Italy, Tolomei remained as ambassador to France until winter 1555. He died in 1556 soon after his return to Rome. His fame, however, rests mostly on his poetical and philological works and especially on his efforts for the Italian language (cf. F. Lucioli, Tolomei, Claudio, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 96, Rome, 2019, s.v.; see also L. Sbaragli, Claudio Tolomei, umanista senese del Cinquecento, Siena, 1939, passim).

The present Lyon edition of the Oratione is apparently the only one to include an appendix, that opens with a separate title page and contains a dedication and nine sonnets addressed to Margaret of Valois (14 May 1553-1615), popularly known as La Reine Margot, which later became Queen of Navarre from 1572 to 1599 and Queen of France from 1589 to 1599 as the consort of Henry IV of France and III of Navarre.

Edit 16, CNCE38287; R.O. Lindsay & J. Neu, eds., French political pamphlets, 1547-1648 : a catalog of major collections in American libraries, Madison, 1969, no. 54.