Beschreibung:

ALBERTI, Leon Battista (1404-72). Momus . [ De principe .] Rome: Jacobo Mazzochi, 1520.
ALBERTI, Leon Battista (1404-72). Momus . [ De principe .] Rome: Jacobo Mazzochi, 1520. 4° (193 x 208mm). With errata and final blank. White-on-black woodcut initials. (Small loss in one corner of the title, marginal dampstaining, occasional light soiling.) Contemporary limp vellum, front cover titled in manuscript (lacking ties, some soiling). Provenance : annotated and foliated throughout in an early hand – Friedrich Augustus, Prince of Brunswick-Oels (1740-1805; bookplate with cancelled shelf marks) – Georg, King of Saxony (1832-1904; crowned cipher stamp on title) – Saxon State and University Library Dresden (deaccession stamp). FIRST EDITION. RARE. ABPC and RBH record only one copy sold at auction: a defective copy lacking two leaves (Sotheby’s, 17 February 1993, lot 386); since then only the Feltrinelli copy of the second edition has sold at auction (Sotheby’s France, 12 October 2010, lot 3, €6000). A leading figure of the Florentine Renaissance, Alberti is often described as the epitome of the Renaissance man and a precursor of Leonardo da Vinci architect, sculptor, writer, poet, painter, musician, mathematician, inventor and athlete, he excelled in all that he undertook. Although his major works were divided equally between Latin and the vernacular, Alberti was one of the most vigorous defenders of the use of the vernacular in literature. Momus is an allegorical satire of princely rule and of the vanity of courtiers and mankind in general. His rebel god Momo, wreaking havoc among gods and mortals, was the source of endless speculation among Alberti’s contemporaries. The indecisive and incompetent Jove was often identified with a succession of actual rulers, among them the humanist Pope Eugenius IV, whose reign (1431-47) ended during the period when Alberti is thought to have written this allegory. Adams A-497; Brunet I, 133.