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Estimate: $ 300 - $ 500
GOETHE, JOHANN WOLFGANG VON. Werther, Opera di Sentimento. Italian translation by Gaetano Grassi. [8], 210, [4] pages, with dedication dated 2 February 1782, and errata at end. 8vo, 170x106 mm, contemporary sheep gilt, surface wear on spine, ends chipped, cover corners worn through; occasional light marginal soiling, few minor stains and clean tears, blank lower outer corner of E6 restored, soiling and pencil doodle on verso of second errata leaf, pen trials in Hebrew on facing endleaf. Signature of L. Castelutti; bookplate of Paola Olper Cases. Poschiavo [Graubünden, Switzerland]: Giuseppe Ambrosioni, (1782)
first edition in italian, translated from a French version, of Goethe's 1774 epistolary novel Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers. "By its intense sensibility and astonishing lifelikeness Werther conquered the reading public, not only of Germany, but of Europe . . . it made Goethe famous overnight and generated a wave of imitation" (OCGL). Grassi's translation was printed at the press founded by Baron Thomas Maria de Bassus, a prominent member of the Bavarian Illuminati, for the dissemination of Illuminist ideas. The 1781 edition cited by Goedeke (Grundriss IV/3, page 213, number 4) is a ghost.
