Description

Two volumes, folio (340x230 mm). [12], 508, [12]; 440 pp. Collation: +6 A-Ss6 Tt8 Vv6; +4 A-Pp6. In volume one engraved allegorical title page bearing on top the arms of the dedicatee, cardinal Capponi, and showing a personification of the reason of state surrounded by the cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance). Lacking the first quire (+4) including the title page and the final [16] pages of index in volume two. Woodcut decoratove initials and headpieces. Early 19th-century half calf gilt, panels covered by marbled paper (slighlty worn, lacking a small portion of the spine bottom in volume two). Some occasional browning and foxing, all in all a good, nearly uncut copy.
First printed in one volume in 1639, this is the first edition of the final version in two parts, that was reprinted by Guerigli also in 1672-1677 (cf. L. Cerri, Memorie per la storia letteraria di Piacenza, Ivi, 1895, p. 125). Rossi's Convito morale is considered as the first Italian dictionary of politics (cf. G. Zucchini, Il “Convito morale” (1639 e 1657) di Pio Rossi: primo dizionario italiano di politica?, in: “Percorsi della libertà: scritti in onore di Nicola Matteucci”, Bologna, 1996, pp. 73-75).
Piantanida, 434; Italian Union Catalogue, IT\ICCU\BA1E\002776.