A late first edition of a lascivious Cantare Carnacialesco

Pulci, Luigi (1432-1484).

Tractato del Prete cole Monache. Paris, Tipografia Crapelet, 1840.

Large 8° (210x135 mm). Printed on blue paper. [8] leaves. Set in gothic type. Large woodcut vignette on the title-page depicting the encounter between a priest and three nuns. Two woodcut decorated initials, on criblé ground. Contemporary marbled pasteboards, engraved label with title on the upper cover. A very good copy, trace of large ex-libris on the front pastedown. Issued in a total of fifty copies, of which this is number 36.

The first edition of this Renaissance cantare carnacialesco, a lascivious work about a priest enticing nuns. The composition of this poetic text has variously been attributed to Luigi Pulci, and is introduced here by a brief address to the reader written by Niccolò Franco (1515-1570).

The Tractato del Prete cole Monache – replete with double entendres – enjoyed a significant manuscript circulation. The work was first published in 1840, from the Paris press run by Georges André Crapelet, and upon the recommendation of Étienne Audin de Rians, a scholar of Italian chivalric and popular literature. The text itself is based on ms Palatino 359 of the National Library in Florence.

As stated in the colophon printed on the recto of the last leaf, the edition was issued in a total of fifty copies, seven of which were printed on parchment, with only fifteen being printed on blue paper, including the handsome copy offered here.

E. Benucci et al. (eds.), Cantari novellistici dal Tre al Cinquecento, Roma 2002.