PETRARCA, Francesco. Le Rime del Petrarca. Dresden, Georg Conrad Walther, 1774.
Small 8vo. Contemporary mottled calf, spine ruled in gilt and with gilt-stamped lettering-piece; pp. xxiv, 456, title with engraved vignette incorporating portrait medallions of both the poet and Laura; light wear to extremities, even light toning, a very good copy of a scarce edition.
Published 400 years after the celebrated poet's death, this collection was printed for students and lovers of Italian literature in Saxony. The publisher and printer Walther had good relations with the court of the elector Friedrich August II and was one of the most important German publishers of books in foreign languages, including many works of the French enlightement, which were distributed far into Eastern Central Europe.
#2103745