12mo. 152pp. With an engraved portrait frontispiece. Contemporary green cloth-backed marbled paper boards. Lightly rubbed, corners exposed. Leaves browned and spotted, short tears and some loss to leaf E1 with slight loss of text and sense.

An early edition of Ugo Foscolo's (1778-1827) immensely popular epistolary novel. Initially published in 1802, the book - considered by certain critics to rank as the first modern Italian novel - is notable for its acerbic condemnation of contemporary national politics, specifically Napoleon's cessation of Venetia to Austria in the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio.