Oratione consolatoria in morte della molto magnifica S. la S. Helisabetta Dotta, Capodelista ... alla illustre et molto magnifica signora, la Signora Cecilia, Contessa di Porciglia, Dotta, sempre osservandissima.

Padova: Gratioso Perchacino , 1555. Original edition. Very Good. Quarto (20 cm); [12] leaves, signed a-c\4, last leaf blank. Printer's device (a crowned salamander ensconced in flames) on title page. Woodcut initial at start of text. Bound in recent half morocco over marbled boards. Trimmed close to top edge. Gutters guarded. Some spotting on title page, but generally clean.

Reference: EDIT 16, CNCE 57958; For attribution to Lando, see Silvana Seidel Menchi, Chi fu Ortensio Lando?, "Rivista storica italiana", #106 (1994), 501-564.

This is an essay about death. In particular, it is a eulogy on the death of young Elizabetta Dotta, who (it is stated in the text) died, recently married, at the age of 16 years, 8 months, 24 days and 12 hours. (The cause of her death is not given.) It does not indulge in a moment's sorrow over this young woman's early demise. Instead, it is an extended encomium of death itself, praising death as liberation from the essential misery of life in this corrupt and depraved world. As such, it is an eloquent statement of philosophical pessimism, the tradition which views life as the soul's exile, as suffering, and sees death as a preferable alternative. "What is life?" Lando asks. "Smoke, a dream, a running shadow, a ship that leaves no trace, an arrow shot to its destination." While the text is not signed, the author is presumed to be Ortensio Lando, the uncomfortable, peripatetic humanist who never stayed in one place for very long, either physically or philosphically. (Inventory #: 6824)