BEMBO. Prose. nelle quali si ragiona della volgar lingua.

First Edition, First Issue of this fundamental treatise on the Tuscan vernacular, released under the direct control of the author by the hand of the trusted Cola Bruno. Monument to the Florentine-Italian language, the Prose represent the most significant text in the history of the Italian language, together with the Promessi Sposi. In dialogical form, Bembo faces the arduous debate around the Italian vernacular matured in the first decades of the sixteenth century, proposing and imposing on his own as well as on subsequent generations, the most congenial solution for him: the illustrious Florentine of Petrarch and Boccaccio, respectively for poetry and prose.

This copy of ours put up for sale is to be considered the true first edition, with the following points to distinguish it from the almost identical counterfeit edition: watermarked paper with a cardinal's hat surmounted by a cross; printing error 'others' on G6r corrected by handwritten marginal note 'arte' perhaps by the hand of Bembo himself on page 42; colophon with 'le stampino' not 'la stampino'. Despite the warning in the colophon of the ten-year privilege for this text, a counterfeit edition was produced the same year.

This copy of ours put is to be considered the real first edition. It differs from the almost identical counterfeit edition for the following characteristics: paper with watermark “Cardinal's hat surmounted by a cross”; printing error 'others' on G6r (page 42), corrected by a handwritten note “arte” in the margin, perhaps by the hand of Bembo himself; misspelled colophon 'le stampino' not 'la stampino'. Despite the warning in the colophon of the ten-year privilege for this text, a counterfeit edition was produced the same year.