La Chioma di Berenice. Poema di Callimaco tradotto da Valerio Catullo volgarizzato ed illustrato da Ugo Foscolo

8vo (225x152 mm). [2], 228 pp. Collation: [π]2 [1]6 [π]1 2-148 152. Printed in roman, italic and Greek types. At the l. 1.1r is the dedication to Giovanni Battista Niccolini, dated July 30, 1803, followed by the ‘Argomento', four discourses, the translation and commentary of ‘La chioma di Berenice' and, at the end, the final XIV considerations by Foscolo. At the end are the table of contents and the errata corrige. On the front pastedown bookplate of Baron Horace von Landau (1824-1903, banker of Jewish-Ukrainian origin, collector and bibliophile that collected in his villa “La Pietra” in Florence one of the most important private libraries of his time). At the l. 14.1r marginal manuscript note. Contemporary half calf with gilt title and small gilt ornaments on spine (spine and hinges damaged and cracked). Inside a good copy with wide margins printed on thick paper.
First edition, first issue, variant ‘A', with the original text at p. 225 “e sulle Sirene incantate da Ulisse perch'ei gettò nel mare / i propri genitali”, the number ‘15' at the bottom margin of the recto of the same page, and at page 228 verso the errata in 14 lines. The first issue of the work was printed by the Milanese Genio Tipografico in November 1803 at the author's own expenses in 500 copies but had very poor sales. Foscolo himself wrote to the bookseller Francesco Reina on January 2, 1804: “or that few read this sort of work, or that many find it expensive, the fact is that I cannot say that I have sold thirty copies”. So, it is legitimate to assume that when Foscolo decided to have the final quire reprinted, at least 400 of the 500 printed copies were still unsold: hence the greater rarity of variant A (the few copies sold) than variant B (the many unsold copies with the replaced final quire).
Italian Union Catalogue, CFIE\000764; Acchippati, Raccolta Foscoliana, I, no. 34; Ottolini, no. 104; Mazzolà, p. 31, no. 23; Calzavara, no. 23; Parenti, Rarità bibliografiche dell'Ottocento, I, no. 239; V. Folinea, Ugo Foscolo. La mia personale raccolta, Naples, 2019, no. 23.