De la institutione di tutto la vita de l'homo nato nobile e in città libera. Libri X. in lingua toscana. Dove e peripateticamente e platonicamente, intorno à le cose de l'Ethica, Iconomica, e parte de la Politica, è raccolta la somma di quanto principalmente può concorrere à la perfetta e felice vita di quello [...] à benefitio del nobilissimo fanciullino Alessandro Colombini, pochi giorni innanzi nato; figlio de la Immortale Mad. Laudomia Forteguerri. Al quale, (havendolo egli sostenuto à battesimo) secondo l'usanza de i compari, de i detti libri fà dono.

4to: [8]-242-[2] ff. (sl. soiling, stronger to quires GG-II, wormholes/track in blank margin of first quires, sl. dampstaining to lower corner in the end).

Contemp. vellum, ink titled flat spine, blue spr. edges.

Rare first edition of this philosophical and moral work on how to achieve "felicità" for noble men. Piccolomini (1508-1579), Sienese astronomer and philosopher, was a member of the "Accademia degli Intronati" and, as student at the University of Padua, helped found the "Accademia degli Infiammati" in which he gave lectures in philosophy. Piccolomini promoted the popularisation in vernacular Tuscan of Latin and Greek scientific and philosophical treatises, and with the "Institutione" promotes the use of vernacular to educate morally the elites. Work dedicated to Laudomia Forteguerri (1515-1555), accomplished Italian poet and member of one of the most powerful families in the 16th-c. Republic of Siena. Piccolomini would have discussed her poetry during a lecture in 1541 at the Infiamatti, making her the first woman whose poetry was discussed openly. Text ornamented with large initials (armorial and historiated) and sm. orn. initials. Printer's mark on title and last leaf verso.
Ref. EDIT16 31669 (quotes a diff. colophon from our copy: "Impresum [!] Venetijs : apud Hieronymum Scotum"; we have: "Venetijs : apud Hieronymum Scotum"). - STC Italy p. 513. - USTC 848289. - Cp. Adams P-1107 (ed. 1543)
Prov. Pietro Griccioli, 19th-c. lawyer from Siena (ms. entry). - Stamp on front flyleaf.