Arrighi Landini, Orazio (1718-1755)
Il Tempio della Filosofia.Poema... di Orazio Arrighi Landini fra gli Agiati, Dorinio (I) In cui con accrescimenti, e osservazioni del medesimo Autores'illustra. (2) il Sepolcro d'Isacco Newton. Con gli Argomentidi Leontippo Accad. Agiato. Venice, Marco Carnioni, 1755.
Small 4° (213x142 mm). Printed on blue paper. XVI, 142, [2] pages. Engraved frontispiece signed by Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815), bearing two medallions, the first portraying the author, the second showing an allegory of ‘labore'. Title-page printed in red and black, with engraved vignette depicting an armillary sphere. One folding plate, with an outline of the different philosophical schools and the names of their proponents. Fine engraved decorated initials, head- and tailpieces, the headpiece on fol. *2r including the coat of arms of the dedicatee, the Bergamo nobleman Giovanni Battista Gallizioli (1733-1806). Contemporary vellum, over pasteboards. Spine with five small raised bands, marbled pastedowns and flyleaves. A very good copy, printed on strong paper. Pale waterstain to the lower gutter of the first leaves, frontispiece slightly browned. On the verso of the front flyleaf the note ‘4214 B 3.2' in an early hand. A nineteenth-century hand has annotated ‘955. I.m.7' on the recto of the rear flyleaf.
Provenance: Gottlieb Schweyer, a Venetian merchant of German origin also known as Amadeus Svajer (1727-1791; his ex-libris on the front pastedown); modern ex-libris, with the initials ‘S.B.' on the frontpastedown.
A fine copy of this verse and prose work by Arrighi Landini, a member of the Accademia degli Agiati in Rovereto, where he adopted the nickname ‘Dorinio'. Divided into three books, the Tempio della filosofia is essentially a panegyric, supplemented with lengthy philosophical observations,of the ‘new' physics of Isaac Newton (1643-1727). As an introduction, the work contains a short biography of Newton, and the text is replete with references to such scientists and philosophers as Nicolas Malebranche, John Locke, Voltaire, Francesco Algarotti, and Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, among others, whose works had been included in the Index of Forbidden Books.
The Tempio della filosofia is dedicated to the philosopher and orientalist Giovanni Battista Gallizioli, and also clearly reveals the influence of Giambattista Vico. This handsome blue-paper copy was once owned by the German merchant Gottlieb Schweyer – also known as Amadeus Svajer – who was active in Venice, where he assembled a notable library. After his death in 1791 the library was partially confiscated by the Inquisition, including his collection of manuscripts relating to Venetian politics. Svajer's ex-libris is also found in other books printed on blue paper, including the copy of Ioannes Diaconus' Chronicon Venetum now in the Van Pelt Library of the University of Pennsylvania, thus revealing his taste for this special genre of printing.
Morazzoni, Il libro illustrato veneziano del Settecento, p. 214; S. Ferrari, “Amadeo Svaier (1727-1791): un mercante erudito nella Venezia del Settecento,” M. Bonazza (ed.), ‘I buoni ingegni della Patria'. L'Accademia, la cultura e la città nelle biografie di alcuni Agiati tra Settecento e Novecento, Rovereto 2002, pp. 51-85; A. Battistini, “Tra Newton e Vico: Il tempio della Filosofia di Orazio Arrighi Landini”, G. Cantarutti – S. Ferrari (eds.), L'Accademia degli Agiati nel Settecento europeo. Irradiazioni culturali, Milano 2007, pp. 11-34.