La Alamanna di M. Antonio Francesco Oliviero Vicentino

Three parts in two volumes, 4to (234x158 mm). [16], 316, [4]; 330, [6]; 43, [1], 15, [1] pp. Collation: 1A8, A-V8; a-x8; aa-bb8 cc6 aaa8. Leaves V8 and x8 are blank. Colophon and printer's device on ll. V7v, x6r, cc6v and aaa8v. Errata for part one and two on ll. x6v-x7r; errata for part three on l. cc6r. La Alamanna is divided into two parts, and is followed by Oliviero's Carlo Quinto in Olma, L'origine d'amore and the Canzone deplorando le miserie d'Italia per le guerre sparse per tutta la Provincia l'anno 1557 with separate numbering at the end of volume two. Woodcut architectonical title with woodcut portrait of the author on verso, to both volumes, and repeated with some minor changes for the third part (Carlo Quinto in Olma), which has separate title. The title-pages show a triumphal arch with equestrian portrait and imperial arms of Charles V; the standing figures on the sides are Charles V's military personel in the war, among them Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, duke of Alba and lieutenenat-general of the imperial army, Ottavio Farnese, duke of Castro and general of the Pope's army, Philipp II, and Maximilian. The portrait of the author is within a scrollwork frame which includes his coat of arms. Moreover part one is illustrated with 12 full-page and 24 half-page woodcuts. Woodcut historiated initials and decorative head- and tail-pieces. 19th-century red half morocco, gild fillets and title on spines, marbled boards and endleaves, green silk bookmarks (slightly rubbed and worn). Some occasional staining and light browning, margins of the title-page of Alamanna's part two shorter than the rest of the volume, small marginal repair to the last leaf of volume two, all in all a very good, wide-margined copy.
Provenance: Sale Pinelli (1789), no. 1985 (manuscript note on front flyleaves); Comte Dimitri Boutourlin (engraved armorial bookplate on front pastedowns); other ownership entry on l. aaa8v hardly readable even with a Wood lamp.
Rare first edition of this epic poem in 24 books chronicling the so-called Schmalkaldic War between Emperor Charles V and the Schmalkaldic League in the years 1546-1547, during which Charles V successfully forced the Protestant princes into submission.
The woodcuts illustrating the first volume show battle and camp scenes with the principal characters identified, possibly by the same artist who cut for Valgrisi the blocks of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. The illustration for book one shows the author, Homer, Vergil, the Muses and St. Peter. “Pictured in other cuts are various battles of the war, with Charles V and the other participants, maps, and city views. Valgrisi mentioned the expense of the illustrations in his address to the reader in part I (leaf A7v), and this program of illustration did prove to be too elaborate to continue throughout the work” (R. Mortimer, Harvard College Library, Italian 16th Century Books, Cambridge MA, 1974, II, p. 476).
It appears from Valgrisi's preface to part two that other illustrations had been planned throughout the text, but were not realized because of the considerable expense involved.
“Oltrepassato il crinale della metà del Cinquecento, Antonio Francesco Olivieri, letterato vicentino, giurista, vicino a Giovan Giorgio Trissino e ad Andrea Palladio, promuove la storia contemporanea a materia di poema eroico: la sua fluviale Alamanna si incentra, infatti, sulla guerra ingaggiata da Carlo V contro la Lega di Smalcalda (1546-47). Pubblicata nel 1567 da Vincenzo Valgrisi, editore di origini lionesi ma trapiantato in Italia, prima a Roma e poi a Venezia, l'opera, pur essendo di qualità artistica mediocre, presenta vari elementi di un certo interesse, come l'elezione a modello dell'Italia liberata da Gotti di Trissino, di cui l'Alamanna adotta anche il metro (l'endecasillabo sciolto), l'osservanza dei dettami aristotelici (e trissiniani) dell'unità di azione e il conseguente posizionamento di Omero (e di Virgilio) ai vertici dell'epica, e, non ultimo, il ricco cor