Il Vagabondo overo Sferza de Bianti, e Vagabondi, Opera Nuova, nella quali si scoprono le fraudi, & inganni de coloro, che vanno girando il Mondo à spese altrui. Et vi si raccontano molti Casi in diversi luoghi, e tempi successi [...]
Publisher: Per Gio. Antonio Remondini
Published: [ca. 1650s?]
Place of publication: Venice & Bassano del Grappa
Language: ita
Number of pages: 94
Description: <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Full title:</b> Il Vagabondo overo Sferza de Bianti, e Vagabondi, Opera Nuova, nella quali si scoprono le fraudi, &amp; inganni de coloro, che vanno girando il Mondo à spese altrui. Et vi si raccontano molti Casi in diversi luoghi, e tempi successi. Data in luce per Avvertimento de’ semplici Da Rafaele Frianoro.</span></p> 

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 8vo. pp. 87 [1]. Signatures: A-B16C12. Bound in paper over thick card; paper has black background and is decorated with small blue circles, each with a white/grey five-pointed star inside. Woodcut image on title page depicting four men appearing to be scheming. Ornamental initials. Sections of text occasionally divided by decorative rules or small decorative ornaments. Some paper torn away at foot of p. 87 but no loss of text. White/cream label with blue border on spine bearing handwritten number 15 or 19. Pen trial (?) on rear pastedown. Various pencil shelfmarks on front and rear pastedowns (Cat. 207, E cz FT, g-2k2/23, 35).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;">A popular 17th-century Italian manual that warns readers about different types of vagabonds, rogues, and professional beggars. Chapter six (‘De falsi bordoni’) discusses fake pilgrims who claim to have been to famous pilgrimage sites such as Jerusalem. The text derives from a late 15th-century Latin work. The present version was first published in 1621 in Viterbo. It was evidently very popular, to judge from the fact that it was printed nearly a dozen more times by a variety of Italian publishers before the century was over. This particular edition has no date but may even come from the 1650s, and is an early production of a famous  popular press, that of the Remondini of Bassano, known for producing cheap prints on a large scale.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;">The name of the author on the title page, Rafaele Frianoro, is the pseudonym of Giacinto De Nobili, a Dominican monk who predominantly wrote about saints (Lebano 1985, p. 239). ‘Il Vagabondo’ is in fact an Italian version of a late 15th-century Latin text called ‘Speculum cerretanorum’, but De Nobili passed it off as his own (see R. Henke, ‘Sincerity, Fraud, and Audience Reception in the Performance of Early Modern Poverty’ Renaissance Drama new series 37/38 (2010), pp. 159–178 (esp. pp. 166-167; E.A. Lebano, ‘[Review] Il libro dei vagabondi by Piero Camporesi’, in: Renaissance Quarterly, 28 (1985), 2, pp. 239-241). See also P. Camporesi, ed. Il Libro dei vagabondi: Lo “Speculum Cerretanorum” di Teseo Pini, “Il Vagabondo” di Rafaele Franoro e altri testi di “furfanteria.” Turin, 1973; Milan, 2003. 
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:11.5pt;font-family:Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://catalyst.library.jhu.edu/permalink/01JHU_INST/1lu78g9/alma991007729179707861" rel="nofollow">Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.</a></span></span></p>