4to. 3 parts in one vol. (8), 301, (13); (4), 40; 8, 84 pp. With engr. title page, 29 small and 9 large armorial woodcuts in the text (two of the latter on half-titles) as well as numerous initials. 19th-c. marbled half calf with giltstamped red label to spine. Second edition, first published in 1644: the history of the Neapolitan "seggi" (seats), i.e., municipal wards or decentralized, neighborhood-based political organizations. "Who one was in Naples was inextricably linked to where one was from. One's residence or affiliation within one of the city's five noble districts (seggio of Capuana, Montagna, Nido, Porto, or Portanova) or its lone popular district (seggio del popolo), as much as one's right of precedence in the order of march in parades and processions, reflected one's status or honor among fellow citizens and one's place in the local social and political structure" (Marino, Becoming Neapolitan, p. 3f.). As the seggi archives in the Archivio di Stato were destroyed during WWII, this text remains one of the principal contemporary accounts of the organization of the seggi. Both early editions being excessively rare, it was reprinted in 2005 by Paolo Piccolo. - Includes, with separate title-pages, "Sopplimento all' apologia del terminio" and "Della varieta della fortuna". The woodcuts show the arms of the various seggi as well as those of the noble families associated with them. - Variously browned throughout due to paper. From the library of the Ducs de Luynes at the Château de Dampierre: their bookplate reproducing the arms of Charles Marie d'Albert de Luynes (1783-1839), 7th Duc de Luynes, on pastedown. ICCU NAPE\001235. Cf. Cat. de la Bibliothèque de M. Libri (Paris 1857), no. 5337-5339 (1644 first ed.).
