8vo. 72 ff. Contemporary full vellum with remains of a giltstamped spine label. All edges coloured. Second Giunta edition of the "Corbaccio", which first appeared in 1487 and was first (and similarly anonymously) printed by Filippo Giunta in 1516: "una materiale ristampa di questa edizione, fatta pagina a pagina e riga a riga" (Gamba); "ces deux editions sont assez rares" (Brunet). This bawdy satire, supposedly based on a Florentine widow who turned down Boccaccio, was as popular as it remains controversial for its scurrilous and misogynistic elements. The text is prefixed by a letter from Filippo Giunta's son Bernardo "a'gli amatori della lingua Toscana"; leaves 57ff. contain Boccaccio's letter to Pino di Rossi. - Provenance: with engraved bookplate of Lord Robert Spencer (1747-1831), British Whig politician, to front pastedown. The youngest son of Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, the hero of the Seven Years' War, Lord Robert was the nephew of the politician John Spencer, 5th paternal great grandfather of Diana, Princess of Wales, and brother of George Spencer, the great-great-great grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill. - Occasional light brownstaining and slight traces of worming to the blank lower margins of the first two leaves, but altogether a well-preserved, charming and authentic example of this rare and desirable edition. Edit 16, CNCE 6267. Adams B 2182. Renouard Supplément, p. XLIX, no. 79. Brunet I, 1016. Gamba 203 (note). Panzer VII, 40f., 219. Bandini, Juntarum Typographiae Annales II, 199. OCLC 612050557. Cf. Hayn/Gotendorf I, 398 (citing later Italian editions only). Not in BM-STC Italian.
