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[SANGRO, Raimondo di]. Lettera apologetica dell'esercitato accademico della Crusca contenente la difesa del libro intitolato Lettere d'una Peruana per rispetto alla supposizione de'Quipu. Naples: [Gennaro Morelli], 1750.
First edition, presentation copy, of a work on the Quipu, an Inca language based on knots in textile cords. Formally a defence of Madame Grafigny’s Letters from a Peruvian Princess, published in 1747, the author’s intentions were actually far more subversive. The Lettera functioned as a complex satire on society and on the interference of the Church in particular, as a result of which the work was placed on the Index librorum prohibitorum in 1752. Sabin 40560.
Quarto (270 x 191mm). Title printed in red, green, and black, with an engraved title-vignette printed in red by Ant. Baldi, 3 folding hand-coloured engraved plates, with the three leaves 117*, 118 and 118* that are often missing. Contemporary vellum, spine lettered in gilt. Provenance: ‘ex dono auctoris’ (inscription on endpaper).
First edition, presentation copy, of a work on the Quipu, an Inca language based on knots in textile cords. Formally a defence of Madame Grafigny’s Letters from a Peruvian Princess, published in 1747, the author’s intentions were actually far more subversive. The Lettera functioned as a complex satire on society and on the interference of the Church in particular, as a result of which the work was placed on the Index librorum prohibitorum in 1752. Sabin 40560.
Quarto (270 x 191mm). Title printed in red, green, and black, with an engraved title-vignette printed in red by Ant. Baldi, 3 folding hand-coloured engraved plates, with the three leaves 117*, 118 and 118* that are often missing. Contemporary vellum, spine lettered in gilt. Provenance: ‘ex dono auctoris’ (inscription on endpaper).
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