TERRACINA, Laura.

Fifth edition, with corrections, first printed in 1548, of this collection of poems by Laura Terracina, one of Italy’s greatest sixteenth century poets and one of only a handful of published woman poets of the period, bound with an entirely unrecorded edition of Petrarch’s ‘Triumphi d’Amor’ newly transcribed into stanza’s. Terracina was born into a noble family, part of the Neapolitan aristocracy loyal to the Spanish crown. She entered the Neapolitan ‘Accademia de la Incogniti’ taking the name ‘Phoeba’, and stayed in contact with many of its members, despite it’s suppression in 1547, dedicating much of her verse to them. This volume is a collection of verse in the Petrarchan tradition ending with a poem to the Virgin. Although she makes little use of Petrarchan tropes in these poems, when she does imitate Petrarch directly she adopts a male poetic voice in literal imitation of her model. She also assiduously followed Ariosto; four Lamenti in this volume are in the voices of Sacripante, Rodomonte, Isabella and Bradamante. She deplored the political and social turmoil of her time and Terracina’s personal familiarity with public life and the vanities of public figures resonates in her condemnation of their failings. Terracina “died soon after dedicating her ninth volume, having acted all her life on her belief in women’s need to pursue the laurel crown of fame. Championing and chiding her sex towards that end she wrote with a passion that has been likened to the ‘furore’ of Orlando in her quest to gain women equal opportunity with men in that pursuit.” Nancy Dersofi, Encyclopedia of women in the Renaissance. The second work comprises Petrarch’s ‘Quattro Triumphi d’amor’, the first of the four ‘Triumphi’, transcribed into stanzas. We have been able to find no other copy of this edition, or an edition of which it could be part. It is an interesting association with Laura Terracina given the influence Petrarch had on her work. A unique and interesting volume.