We offer seven works by Gabriele Zinano

Il Viandante, overo della Precedenza dell'Armi, et delle Lettere. [Reggio Emilia, Ercolano Bartoli, ca. 1590]. 8vo. 44 pp. Collation: A-B8 C6. Edit 16, CNCE30824. L'Amante, overo Sollevatione della Bellezza dell'Amata alla Bellezza di Dio. [Reggio Emilia, Ercolano Bartoli, ca. 1590]. 8vo. [6], 44, [2] pp. Collation: A-C8 D2. The final leaf is a blank. Ownership entry on the title page “Di Andrea Bastianelli”. Edit 16, CNCE30815. Delle Rime, et Prose […] Parte prima. Reggio Emilia, Ercolano Bartoli, [ca. 1591]. 8vo. [16], 54, [2] pp. Collation: A-D8 E4. The final leaf is a blank. Title page soiled and reinforced, worm track repaired to the lower inner margin of the first eight leaves slightly affecting the text. Delle Rime, et Prose […] Seconda parte. Reggio Emilia, Ercolano Bartoli, [ca. 1591]. 8vo. [12], 1-30, [2], 31-33, [1] pp. Collation: *6 A-B8 C2. Leaf B8 is a blank. Edit 16, CNCE30840. Il Soldato, over della Fortezza. Reggio Emilia, Ercolano Bartoli, [ca. 1591]. 8vo. [6], 20, [2] pp. Collation: A8 B6. The final leaf is a blank. Edit 16, CNCE30843. L'Amico, over del Sospiro […] Alla Ser.ma Signora duchessa d'Urbino. [Reggio Emilia, Ercolano Bartoli, ca. 1591]. 8vo. [6], 24 [i.e. 22] pp. Pages 11-12 omitted in pagination. Collation: A8 B6. Edit16, CNCE30837. L'Amata, overo della Virtù heroica. [Reggio Emilia, Ercolano Bartoli, ca. 1591]. 8vo. [6], 23, [3] pp. A-B8. The final leaf is a blank. Edit 16, CNCE30834. With the printer's device on the various title-pages. Seven works bound in five volumes recently variably bound either in stiff vellum or cardboards. Overall, in good condition.
We offer here seven works by Gabriele Zinano, all in first edition and all printed in Reggio Emilia by the printer Ercolano Bartoli.
Zinano's poems, dedicated to Marfisa d'Este and Girolama Colonna, are mostly Petrarchan sonnets, but also madrigals, idylls and poems in dialogue form. His poetry is permeated with a jesting spirit and is mostly occasioned by mundane courts affairs, what is evident from the list of dedicatees printed at the beginning, which also contains short notes on the motivation of a certain poem. Today it remains not only a valuable source of bio-bibliographical material for the ‘courteous' poetry of his day, but also reveals a vivid portrayal of the Roman and Neapolitan social life of the time. Of great interest are also Zinano's speculations on beauty and love, which are found in his treatises L'Amante, overo Sollevatione della Bellezza dell'Amata (cf. cf. R. Kelso, Doctrine for the Lady of the Renaissance, Urbana, IL, 1956, p. 21).
Gabriele Zinano was born in Reggio Emilia, where he also made his first studies, which were continued at the University of Ferrara under Cesare Creminini und Francesco Patrizi. He travelled all his life through Italy to find an adequate occupation. He was also for a while in Germany and at the court of Emperor Ferdinand in Vienna. A short military career in the Hapsburg army in Hungary brought him the honorary title of ‘Signore di Bellay'. During longer sojourns in Naples and Rome he made the acquaintance of literary figures such as Torquato Tasso, Giovanni Battista Manso, Marino and Basile, as well as of the composer Monteverdi. In Rome he became a member of the prestigious Accademia degli Umoristi. Apart his extensive literary production he was also the author of a treatise on the reason of state (U. Onorati, Gabriele Zinano, Signore di Bellay. Un trattatista della ragion di Stato e intellettuale della Controriforma reggiano, in “Contributi delle Biblioteca Municipale Panizzi”, IX/18, Reggio Emilia, 1985, pp. 5-44; see also G. Tiraboschi, Biblioteca modenese, Modena, 1784, V, p. 425).