GIUSEPPE

[Andrea Maffei, Italian poet and librettist for Verdi and Mascagni.] Autograph Manuscript of his poem ‘Il tramonto’ (put to music for voice and piano by Verdi), signed ‘Andrea Maffei.

Author: 
Andrea Maffei (1798-1885), Italian poet, librettist for Giuseppe Verdi
Andrea Maffei
Publication details: 
No date or place.
£280.00
Andrea Maffei

Holograph of sixteen-line poem in four four-line stanzas, headed ‘Il tramonto’ and signed at bottom right ‘Andrea Maffei’. 1p, 16mo. Text entirely clear and complete, on discoloured laid paper with chipping and slight loss at right-hand margin. Begins: ‘Amo l’ova del girono che muore / Quando il sole già stanco declina,’. No variations from the version printed in the 1864 Florence edition of Maffei’s works, apart from ‘Una età’ beginning l.6 here, as opposed to ‘Un' età’ there.

[Pope Pius XII.] Printed ticket of admission ('Biglietto personale') to the 'Anticamera Pontificia', on the occasion of his pontifical mass and coronation, issued by Alberto Arborio-Mella di Sant'Ella, Maestro di Camera.

Author: 
Pope Pius XII [Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli] (1876-1958), Roman Catholic pontiff [Alberto Arborio Mella di Sant'Elia (1880-1953), Maestro di Camera; Vatican City, Rome]
Publication details: 
Invitation dated 'Vaticano, 4 marzo 1939', for event on 12 March 1939. ['Tip. Vaticana. 6-3-1939']
£35.00

A nice piece of papal ephemera, printed in blue on one side of 15 x 21 cm piece of blue wove paper, with large ornate watermark of 'SACRI PALAZZI APOSTOLICI', with triregnum and crossed keys. In fair condition, lightly aged and creased. Folded twice. Numbered 7370, with following at head: 'Ingresso: Facciata della Basilica | (Cancello di destra N. 3)', and at foot 'Accesso: VIA DI PORTA ANGELICA'. At left-hand side: '12 | GRATIS'.

[Giuseppe Garibaldi, hero of the Risorgimento.] Autograph Signature ('G. Garibaldi').

Author: 
Giuseppe Garibaldi [Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi] (1807-1882), Italian general and nationalist, hero of the Risorgimento who played a central part in the unification of Italy
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£120.00

On irregular slip of thin paper, roughly 2 x 6 cm. Laid down on piece of paper cut from album. In fair condition, lightly aged. Bold signature ('G. Garibaldi') with wavy underlining, possibly cut from the valediction of a letter.

[Giuseppe Antonio Taruffi, Italian author, diplomat and chess player.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Taruffi'), in English, to 'a matchless Nobleman', regarding individuals including 'Canon Ghigiotti', 'Valiani, & Corallis', and 'the strangest varlet'..

Author: 
Giuseppe Antonio Taruffi (1715-1786), Italian author, diplomat and chess player
Publication details: 
Vienna. 18 April 1768.
£250.00

1p, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged. Written in a clear and attractive hand. The recipient is not named. Begins: 'My dear & ever-honoured Friend! | Some business of great importance kept me nine days absent from this Capital. At my return I found your most obliging Letter of the 7th. instant, & was exceedingly delighted with your Kindness. You are indeed a matchless Nobleman.' He asks if the recipient is acquainted with Prince Charles of [Cunandia?], adding: 'I swear you knew the strangest varlet that ever was. It is pity.

[ Alessandro Gavazzi, chaplain in Garibaldi's army during the Risorgimento. ] Autograph Note Signed ('Alessandro Gavazzi') to 'John Ledgett Esq', in English, regarding a meeting.

Author: 
Alessandro Gavazzi (1809-1899), Italian political and church reformer during the Risorgimento, a chaplain in Garibaldi's army
Publication details: 
88 Newman Street [ London ]. 4 February [ 1850s ].
£90.00

1p., 12mo. In fair condition, on aged paper. Reads: 'Dear Sir | I returned yesterday only from a long journey. I hope to see you in he present week in the City.' In 1850 Gavazzi began a course of political and religious sermons in London; first at the Princess's Court Rooms, Great Castle Street, Oxford Street, and then from 1854 in an open chapel at King's Cross. In 1859 he returned to Italy to take up a post as chaplain for Giuseppe Garibaldi, serving in that role during the Expedition of the Thousand to Sicily in 1860.

[ 'Purnell's History of the Second World War.' ] Folder of material gathered by editor Barrie Pitt, mainly consisting of typescripts of signed translations from Italian by H. Fields, but also containing a typewritten paper on the Special Boat Service

Author: 
[ Barrie Pitt (1918-2006), military historian and editor, 'Purnell's History of the Second World War'; General Giuseppe Mancinelli (1895-1976); H. Fields, translator ]
Publication details: 
Fields' translations all date from 1968. The other items without date or place.
£450.00

Despite the name, the series was published by was published by Phoebus Publishing Ltd, in co-operation with the Imperial War Museum, from 1966. Sir Basil Liddell-Hart was first editor-in-chief, followed after his death by A. J. P. Taylor. The items in this collection are loosely inserted in a buff folder, with 'Sub-editing, Production | Illustrations, Art-work etc' in red ink on cover, under which, in black ink, the name 'Peter Dunbar'. Nine articles, together with nine notes and 'integrating notes' on various articles, all translated by H.

[Giuseppe 'Pino' Orioli, Florentine bookseller and companion of Norman Douglas.] Autograph Signature ('G. Orioli'), and Signed Autograph Inscription ('Pino') on title-leaf of his book 'Adventures of a Bookseller'.

Author: 
Giuseppe Orioli [Pino Orioli] (1884-1942), Italian bookseller, first publisher of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' by D. H. Lawrence, and close companion of the English novelist Norman Douglas
Publication details: 
The inscription is dated 'Florence day of publication', the book being published in Florence in 1937.
£150.00

Only the prelims of the book are present, on four leaves. In fair condition, on aged paper, with slight damage at the margin of the first leaf. Orioli's two inscriptions are on the two central leaves. Comprising a leaf with series title ('The Lungarno Series No. 12'); leaf with half-title and limitation (no 5 of 300) on reverse, signed 'G. Orioli'; title leaf; and contents leaf. The inscription on the title reads: 'This is for Barbara and Raphael | with love and affection | from Pino [Orioli] | Florence day of publication'.

[Frederick Huth, Victorian banker.] Six secretarial letters to him, in French, each signed by the Duke of Terranova and Monteleone, on the news from Mexico and his financial affairs, with an Autograph Letter Signed by Joseph Gonfalon Agati.

Author: 
Frederick Huth [John Frederick Andrew Huth; Johann Friedrich Andreas Huth] (1777-1864), German-born London banker [Giuseppe Pignatelli Aragona Cortes (1795-1859), Duke of Terranova and Monteleone]
Publication details: 
All seven letters from Palermo, Italy. Agati's letter dating from 1831, and the Duke's letters from 1832 (3), 1833, 1836 and 1846.
£250.00

All seven items are in good condition, on aged and lightly-creased bifoliums, and all docketted by the recipient. The Duke's letters total 13pp., 4to. Each is addressed, with postmarks, on the reverse of the second leaf, with one bearing part of a red wax seal. The letters all deal with the financial management of his affairs, with reference to substantial sums, with mention of Naples and Rothschild. The references to Mexican affairs in the correspondence are of particular interest, coming from a descendant of Hernan Cortes, and presumably still a substantial landowner in the country.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'F. Eber') from Ferdinand Eber ('General Eber'), Hungarian-born 'condottiere-journalist', to fellow Times correspondent Henry Wreford, the second letter discussing Garibaldi, Victor Emmanuel and the Risorgimento.

Author: 
Ferdinand Eber (d.1885), Hungarian-born correspondent of The Times of London, and 'condottiere-journalist' in support of Garibaldi as 'General Eber' [Henry Wreford, Times correspondent in Naples]
Publication details: 
Letter One: 33 St James's Square, London; 16 January [no year]. Letter Two: Palermo, Italy, 20 June [no year].
£280.00

On 28 February 1885 The Times announced the death of Eber, 'for many years our valued correspondent at Vienna'; and a hundred years later (24 September 1985) the same paper described Eber as 'the condottiere-journalist, General Ferdinand Eber, whose habit of engaging in wars as well as reporting them earned him the displeasure of his masters in Printing House Square'. Both items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper, with slight damage from previous mounting. Both addressed to 'My dear Wreford', and both written in a difficult hand. Letter One: 3pp., 12mo.

Manuscript Letter, written for publication in a 'valuable periodical', signed by 'Uno dell'Antica Scuola', containing 'observations' for 'students of the Vocal Art'. ['The art of Vocalization', with especial reference to Italian opera.]

Author: 
'Uno dell'Antica Scuola' [Italian Opera; vocalisation]
Observations' for 'students of the Vocal Art'
Publication details: 
Undated. [England, 1880s?
£95.00
Observations' for 'students of the Vocal Art'

4to, 4 pp. Bifolium. 87 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with wear to extremities and a spike hole to one corner. Written in ink in a Victorian hand, and with three changes in pencil. Docketed at head 'The art of Vocalization'. Towards beginning writes that the subject is one which he has 'studied many years in close connexion with the most eminent Masters of Italy, most of whom I may rank among my personal friends, and the pith of whose conversations, added to my own experience I propose embodying in a few short essays upon the Formation of the Voice'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('G : A Galignani'), in Italian, to Twining. With signed receipt by Galignani, in Italian, for '18 Lezioni'.

Author: 
Giovanni Antonio Galignani (1757-1821), Paris bookseller and publisher of English works [Richard Twining (1772-1857), tea merchant]
Publication details: 
Letter: 'Venerdi mattina' (docketed with date 8 November 1796). Receipt dated 21 January 1797.
£800.00

Letter: 12mo, 1 p. On bifolium. Text clear and complete. On aged and ruckled paper. Slight damage to second leaf caused by breaking open of wafer. Addressed to 'Illustrissimo Signore'. Having 'un affare di qualche importanza alle nove', he would like to give Twining his lesson (presumably in Italian) the following morning at 8 o'clock. He hopes that coming half an hour early does not cause any inconvence. Receipt: on one side of a slip of paper, 7 x 19.5 cm. Headed 'Memorandum del Signor Twining'. For '18 Lezioni la prima delle quali fa data li 15 Novembee', and signed 'Galignani'.

Autograph letter signed ('L'abbe Contrafatto'), in French, to Félix Barthe (1795-1863), French Minister of Justice.

Author: 
Joseph Contrafatto (b.1798) [l'abbé Contrafatto], Sicilian-born French priest; sentenced to hard labour for an 'affaire de mœurs'; imprisoned, 1827; released, 1845 [Félix Barthe; paedophilia]
Publication details: 
Brest le 15 Juin 1831' [Bagne de Brest].
£300.00

4to: 2 pp. Eighteen lines of text. Very good on aged paper. Docketed. Written while a convict at the Bagne de Brest. Titled by Contrafatto in top left-hand corner 'Direction des affaires Criminelles et des grâces.' Begins with a Latin quotation on the subject of crime and innocence, to which he adds the comment 'Quel est celui qui, plus que moi, ait le droit d'invoquer ce principe tutélaire?' In a six-line paragraph attempts to flatter Barthe ('[...] l'ornement du Barreau avant d'être appelé dans le conseil du Roi.

Contemporary copy of letter, in French, by the convict 'François Antonini | No 18933. Salle 4 [Bagne de Brest]' to 'trés chèr [sic] Père', docketed 'Lettre écrite et traduite par le Prètre Contrafatto'.

Author: 
François Antonini' [Joseph Contrafatto (b.1798); l'abbé Contrafatto], Sicilian-born French priest; sentenced to hard labour for an 'affaire de mœurs'; imprisoned, 1827; released, 1845] [paedophilia]
Publication details: 
Brest le 8. 8bre.. 1835.' [8 October 1835]
£56.00

8vo: 2 pp. Thirty lines of text. Very good, on lightly-aged laid paper. Distinctive use of diacritics. Informing the recipient of 'des bonnes nouvelles, ayant participé à la clémence Royale. Ma peine a été rémise a 8. ans, par consequence je ne' Suis plus condamné a perpetuité, et j'éspere en Dieu et les bontés du Roi qu'aprés la moitié de mon temps vénir vous embrasser.' Thanks all his wellwishers, particularly 'Monsieur Le Maire de notre commune'. Signs off 'Votre infortune fils jusqu'a la tombe'.

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