CASTIGLIONE, Luigi Gonzaga, prince of. ~ L’Homme de lettres bon citoyen, discours philosophique & politique... traduit de l’italien. Geneva: [n.p.], 1777.
4to (240 × 180 mm), pp. xxv, [1], iii, [1], [3], xxxi-cxxiv, plus engraved medallion portrait by Giovanni Volpatto after Domenico Corvi. Typographical and woodcut ornaments. Printed on thick paper. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt, panelled spine, orange morocco label, possibly the publisher’s binding. Slightly rubbed with a little more wear to corner. A very good copy.
First edition in French of Il letterato buon cittadino discorso filosofico e politico (Rome, 1776) by the Italian noble traveller and philosophe. According to Barbier it was published in an edition of 100 copies, a limitation reflected in the thick paper used for its printing. It includes Gonzaga’s Réflexions sur la poesie, ecrites in François and Essay analytique sur les découvertes capitales de l’esprit humain, addressed to the Royal Society in London in 1777. The prince evidently was well received in both French and English circles as he travelled in Europe. While Gonzaga was in London he inscribed a copy of the present edition to the young William Beckford (see Book Collector, 55, p. 574) and dined with Samuel Johnson and Hester Thrale. Johnson commented wryly that Thrale ‘has added to her conquests the Prince of Castiglione’ (letter to Henry Thrale, 9 April, 1777). Barbier II, 855.