Gilio, Due dialogi, Camerino, 1564, contemporary Italian vellum

GILIO, GIOVANNI ANDREA. Due dialogi nel primo de'quali si ragiona de le parti morali a civili appertenenti a Letterati Cortigiani ... nel secondo si ragiona de gli errori de Pittori circa l'historié con molte annotationi fatte sopra il Giuditio di Michelangelo. Camerino: Antonio Gioioso, 1564

FIRST EDITION OF ONE OF THE FIRST POST-TRIDENTINE TREATISES ON MANNERIST ART, WITH EVIDENCE OF CENSORSHIP IN A CONTEMPORARY HAND.

The writings of Giovanni Andrea Gilio (d. 1584) span a vast expanse of topics, ranging from the historical and hagiographical to the art-historical and literary, and even courtly treatises and polemics. The present work is his best known, here found in first edition with its dedication to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. The first dialogue is a treatise on courtly manners, but it is the second which garnered the greatest contemporary interest. It is one of the first moral treatises on art published in the wake of the Council of Trent and takes the form of a dialogue between six characters with differing viewpoints. The text touches on a number of polemical issues, including the relationship between poetry and painting, and the execution, function and effect of religious artworks. Michelangelo's Last Judgment fresco is taken as the primary example, being both lauded and criticised with regard to the ever-polemical notion of decorum.

Certain parts of the text have been erased in this copy, including multiple instances of the word "dishoneste" (see b4r and h2r) and longer phrases, such as, on b2v, in the phrase, "Se vogliamo considerare la nostra compositione secondo l'ordine de la natura: non solo non potrà essere questo che io dico: ma ne anco la resurrettione de' morti," where "ma ne anco la resurrettione de' morti" had been erased.