Acquaviva, De venatione et de aucupio, Naples, 1519, old red goatskin

ACQUAVIVA, BELISARIO

De venatione et de aucupio, de re militari et singulari certamine. Naples: Jean Pasquet de Sallo, 1 August 1519

folio (293 x 203mm.), woodcut printer's device at end, eighteenth-century Italian red morocco, flat spine gilt, first leaf stained and repaired at edges with loss of a few letters on verso, damp-stained, extremities slightly rubbed

RARE FIRST EDITION of this work on hunting, falconry, military matters and duels. Acquaviva (1464-1528) was a statesman and condottiere for the Aragonese kings of Naples; in return for helping repulse the French invasion of Charles VIII and for his ongoing support of the Spanish in Naples, he later became Duke of Nardò. This volume was issued alongside another on the education of princes, De instituendis liberis principum. A manuscript note on the title-page refers to his related educational tract Paraphrasis in economica Aristotelis libri duo, on household and agricultural matters, also printed by Jean Pasquet as the second part of De instituendis liberis principum, and which was presumably at one time bound with this book.

Acquaviva's literary connections are indicated by the two prefaces by Neapolitan humanists addressed to him: the first one is by Crisostomo Colonna, and the second by Antonio Galateo; all three had studied with Giovanni Pontano. Acquaviva dedicates the first work, on hunting, to his brother Andrea Matteo, with whom he studied the Kynegetica of Oppian in childhood.

LITERATURE:

Edit16 238; Harting, Bibliotheca accipitraria 301 (listing a previous edition printed by Pietro Perna in Basel, 1518, which was actually produced in 1578)