La principessa di Cleves, trasportata dal Francese da Gomes Fontana e dedicata all'illustrissima & ecc. signora La Signora Lucretia Gradenigo Capello

Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, Madame de La Fayette | translated by Gomes Fontana

Venice: Girolamo Albrizzi, 1691

[12], 451, [3] p. | 12mo | *^6 A-S^12 T^12(-T12) | 147 x 81 mm

First Italian edition of this popular, path-breaking novel, “one of the most important novels in the French tradition” (DeJean). And here an early edition, preceded only by the Paris first edition of 1678, English editions in 1679 and 1688, and a second French edition of 1689. Many more editions followed, as the work remained popular well into the 19th century. Commonly cited as one of the earliest psychological novels, and perhaps the first historical novel, the story is set among the court of Henri II and employs as characters some of history’s true courtiers. ¶ The plot conforms to many prevailing social norms, but not without subverting others. A mother brings her daughter, the future Madame de Clèves, to court in search of a good marriage. Her match accomplished, if not quite as estimable as hoped, she falls in love with the Duke of Nemours—who is notably not her husband. The Prince of Clèves, who is her husband, discovers her emotional affair. On his deathbed—possibly he died of a broken heart—he implores his wife not to marry Nemours. So in the end, our protagonist faces a heart-wrenching choice between her emotional paramour and a sense of duty to her late husband. In a way, she chooses neither, opting instead to enter a convent. In so doing, she effectively rejects the patriarchy altogether. To be sure, “as several critics have stressed, La Princesse de Clèves is the story of a woman who seeks to control the text of her life. Indeed, the princess’s actions can be interpreted as efforts to individualize herself” (McGuire). ¶ The novel invited criticism immediately, and one erotic scene in particular has stirred critics for centuries: that in which the Madame gazes longingly at a portrait of the Duke, unaware that he is watching her. “This is both a rare example of an early woman writer’s portrayal of a female protagonist exploring the language of female eroticism and one of the most explicit depictions of female desire in Early Modern French literature…In Lafayette’s portrayal of female desire, her insistence on female agency is flagrant: the paintings were commissioned by Diane de Poitiers; the princess herself, rather than her husband, issued the order to have copies made as well as the order to have those copies moved from Paris to the couple’s country estate. Lafayette’s contemporaries saw this display of female agency as bold indeed” (DeJean). This scene is preserved in the present Italian translation (see p. 359 for the scene’s opening, and p. 368-369 for the eroticized art viewing). ¶ Translations published during the author’s lifetime are scarce in trade, and we find no copies of this first Italian edition in North America.

PROVENANCE: Initials “SN” inked on the half-title and title, plus an old illegible octagonal ink stamp on the title page. A few additional early scribbles.

CONDITION: Contemporary parchment over boards; title handwritten on spine. Head-pieces and initials. Leaf T11 is blank. ¶ Foxed throughout; paper remnant adhered to the half-title verso, perhaps by means of an old wax seal. Front hinge detached from the text block beneath the gutter, though the endsheet still holds it together; small tears at the foot of the spine; parchment quite soiled.

REFERENCES: Joan DeJean, “X-Rated Removing Madame de Clèves from ‘La Princesse de Clèves,’” The French Review 80.2 (December 2006), p. 436-437; James R. McGuire, “La Princesse de Clèves dé-nouant La Princesse de Clèves,” The French Review 66.3 (February 1993), p. 388; Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge University, 2019), p. 219 (the author was one among a group of noblewomen who “wrote memoirs of court life explicitly to defend their names against gossip and rumor and tell the true stories of their actions”)

Item #287