Bernardino Pomatelli, Ferrara, 1714
First edition of Baruffaldi’s ode to tobacco, particularly snuff.
Description: Contemporary vellum, morocco label lettered in gilt to spine. Octavo: 21 × 15 cm; pp. 240. With the printer’s mark of Pomatelli, 2 title vignettes and 2 text initials.
Ref.: opac.sbn.it: IT\ICCU\VIAE\001766
Provenance: On the front pastedown the bookplate of the Marchese di Salza; stamp of the Rothamsted Experimental Station (today: Rothamsted Research). On the rear pastedown the bookplate of John William Ward, Earl of Dudley (1781–1833).
Condition: Binding stained and wavy. Contents show light marginal browning and occasional staining, with small parts of the text missing on page 171.
Notes: Girolamo Baruffaldi (1675–1755) was a priest, scholar, poet, and dramatist. He established the Vigna Academy in Ferrara and served as the archpriest of the parish church of Cento in addition to holding the position of a professor of Sacred Scripture and Rhetoric at the University of Ferrara. Baruffaldi showed a keen interest in archaeology, history, and literature, publishing several books about the history of Ferrara alongside a collection of verse poems. The poem consists of almost two thousand verses and was written in 1712 during his exile in Veneto. Baruffaldi referred to tobacco as the drug of poets, elixir of writers.