FOSCOLO. La chioma di Berenice. Poema di Callimaco.

4to; 230x160 mm; modern binding in quarter leather and decorated hardback with corners. Pp. [2], 228. Fine uncut copy printed on thick paper and with wide margins.

Very rare first edition of the first issue recognisable by the original text on p. 225 "... … e sulle Sirene incantate da Ulisse perch'ei gettò nel mare / i propri genitali", followed by the Latin text and seven lines in Italian, and by the last quatrain numbered "15".

This is Variant A, which is much rarer than Variant B.

Regarding the greater rarity between the two editions, it must be remembered that the work published in Milan at the author's expense in November 1803 in 500 copies all in thick paper had very little sale. Foscolo himself was aware of the economic failure, and on 2 January 1804, he wrote to the bookseller Francesco Reina 'o che pochi leggano questa sorta d'opere, o che molti la trovino cara, fatto sta ch'io non posso dire d'averne venduto trenta copie'. Therefore, on 12 January 1804, he proposed to Reina that he take over the remaining copies 'poco più di 400' all together. 

Given this, it is legitimate to assume that at the time Foscolo decided to make the well-known variant, at least 400 of the 500 copies printed were lying in the Genio Tipografico's warehouses: hence the greater rarity of variant A (the few copies sold) compared to variant B (the many unsold copies subject to the replacement of the final quatrain).