“THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST INFORMATIVE OFFICIAL ACCOUNTS OF A FESTIVAL PUBLISHED DURING THE FIRST HALF OF THE CENTURY” (MITCHELL)

A rare first edition of one of the earliest accounts of wedding festivities ever printed , apparently preceded only by the Order of the Wedding of Costanzo Sforza, Lord of Pesaro, and Camilla de Aragonia, his Consort (Vicenza, 1475). Written in the form of a letter to Giovanni Bandini, orator of the Duke of Florence at the Emperor's court, the book describes the festivities, decorations, and spectacles organized to celebrate, in the summer of 1539, the wedding of Cosimo I de' Medici to Eleonora de Toledo, daughter of the Viceroy of Naples, Pietro de Toledo.
The account includes the full text of Il Commodo , a comedy by Antonio Landi performed on July 9 in the courtyard of the Medici Palace on Via Larga, and the Intermedi by Giambattista Strozzi. The comedy's protagonist, Dr. Ricciardo, is “an irascible bigot who makes life miserable for his entire family.” There were five intermezzi [...] all carefully preserved in the printed text, which must have distracted the noble company" (M.T. Herrick, Italian Comedy in the Renaissance , Urbana-London, 1966, p. 62). The stage, designed by Aristotle da Sangallo (1481–1551), is considered “a watershed in the evolution of a court theatre of a type that conquered Europe” (R. Strong, Art and Power. Renaissance Festivals 1450–1650 , Berkeley-London, 1984, p. 34).
Edit 16, CNCE20908; Adams, G-584; D. Decia–R. Delfiol–LS Camerini, The Giunti typographers and publishers of Florence (1497-1570). Part one, Florence, 1978, no. 235; D. Moreni, Historical-reasoned bibliography of Tuscany, Florence, 1805, I, p. 427; Leg, 2750; Catalog of ancient and modern books… comprising the bibliothèque de feu MD-E.-F. Ruggieri, Paris, 1885, no. 286; Clubb, 535; B. Mitchell, Italian civic Pageantry in the High Renaissance, Florence, 1979, pp. 51-52; C. Valacca, The Life and Works of Messer Pierfrancesco Giambullari, Part One 1495–1541, Bitonto, 1898, pp. 41–46; A.C. Minor & B. Mitchell, eds., A Renaissance Entertainment: Festivities for the Marriage of Cosimo I, Duke of Florence, in 1539, Columbia, 1968, passim.