Pietro Aretino | Autograph letter signed, to Don Ferrante Gonzaga, Venice, 1553

Pietro Aretino

Autograph letter signed, to Don Ferrante Gonzaga (brother of the Duke of Mantua), 

imploring him to intercede on behalf of Giantomaso da l'isola di Doara, who was condemned to the galleys for stealing grain, 1 page, folio (320 x 220mm.), integral autograph address leaf ("Ala eccellenza Del Signor Don Ferrante Gonzaga Grandissimo Capitano il famoso"), with trace of seal and endorsements, Venice, 6 January 1553

A RARE APPEARANCE ON THE MARKET OF A LETTER BY "THE SCOURGE OF PRINCES", though here, however, he is adopting the guise of a supplicant to the great condottiere Don Ferrante Gonzaga, whose "giudizio savio" he can rely on. Aretino paints a pitiful picture of the situation of the unfortunate thief, buried in prison half-dead for more than a year, and the fate of his five children, tormented by misery.

Aretino signs the letter with somewhat false modesty as Gonzaga's "inutile servo", and his petition proved successful; in a subsequent letter, dated 27 March 1553, he praises Gonzaga for preserving Giantomaso from the "Purgatory of the oar".

The sentiments expressed in Aretino's letter, calling for clemency and understanding, are echoes from his tragedy Orazia of 1546, in which the single survivor of the contest between the Horatii and Curiatii (representing ancient Rome and its rival, Alba Longa) is condemned to death yet spared following the pleas for clemency from his father. Gonzaga is one of the notable people praised by Fama in the prologue.

Aretino famously published all his letters in his lifetime; the first volume appeared in 1538 and they were regularly reprinted (and pirated), creating a new taste for letters as a literary form.

PROVENANCE:

Parke Bernet, New York, 4 June 1969, lot 5; Sotheby's, London, 29 November 1985, lot 261