Palladio, Coryciana, Rome, 1524, contemporary Roman brown sheep

PALLADIO, BLOSIO. Coryciana. Rome: Ludovico Arrighi and Lautizio Perugino, July 1524

A collection of 399 poems by some 130 poets belonging to the sodality of Johann Goritz (Corytius), a registrar of supplications and papal protonotary in Rome. In 1512 he had dedicated an altar in the church of S. Agostino and each year on the feast day of Saint Anne (26 July) festive dinners were held at which poetic hymns and prayers were circulated. The first part of the Coryciana contains epigrams celebrating Goritz’s generosity and the sculptural altar (by Andrea Sansovino) and fresco (by Raphael) he commissioned for the church; the second, hymns and prayers to Saint Anne; and the third and last, praises of Goritz and his hospitality. It is supposed that the poems were attached to screens placed around the altar and that this anthology by Blosio Palladio (Biagio Pallai) gathers only a small proportion.

The present copy has an inked-over early modern ownership inscription ("Guilielmi Nicolai") and a manuscript list of 128 of the 130 authors who contributed to the book, entitled "Poetae Coricii", on the lower endleaf. This copy has British provenance stretching back to at least the eighteenth century, and according to a note on the front free endpaper, dating from 1722, it was acquired as part of a "Dutch Auction" (an auction format where the auctioneer starts with a high asking price and moves downward, with the first bidder winning the lot).