Very rare Italian grammar printed for the Leopoldine schools of Florence.

[Italian grammar] / [Enlightenment] / [Public schools]. Erudimenti di lingua toscana ad uso delle regie pubbliche scuole di S. Leopoldo di Firenze. In Livorno: presso Carlo Giorgi, 1788. 8vo [14.6 x 10.0 cm], [1] f., 122, [1] f. blank, with woodcut device on title page. Bound in contemporary cartonato, red mottled edges. Minor edge wear, chipping, rubbing and staining. Minor toning in some quires, contemporary annotation on title page (“aureo libro che dovrebbe ben imperarsi da ogni giovine bennato”).
 
 
Very rare (1 copy worldwide) first edition of this Italian (“lingua toscana”) grammar printed expressly for the use of the recently established Leopoldine public schools of Florence (“regie pubbliche scuole di S. Leopoldo di Firenze”). Such books­­—produced in limited numbers for a specific audience of school children—were soon use to pieces and so rarely survive today.
 
Founded by Leopold I, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1747-92; later Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II), and based on Enlightenment educational principles, the Leopoldine public schools served both girls and boys (see the studies by Astorga and Gaudio). The Gazzetta Toscana (no. 46, 15 Nov. 1783) notes the opening of S. Leopoldo in Florence and describes its curriculum.
 
No indication of authorship is given in the pages of the Erudimenti di lingua toscana ad uso delle regie pubbliche scuole di S. Leopoldo di Firenze, but the grammatical parts of the text seem to be derived from the work of the linguist-educator Pier Domenico Soresi (1711-78), who published on Italian/Tuscan grammar from the 1750s until his death. The second part of the work treats Italian verse.
 
 
OCLC, KVK & ICCU locate 1 copy worldwide of this title (Biblioteca comunale Labronica Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi, Livorno).
 
 
*IT\ICCU\LIAE\037920; Mónica Vázquez Astorga, Le scuole Leopoldine di Firenze e la loro storia (1778-1976); Angelo Gaudio, Educazione e scuola nella Toscana dell’Ottocento: Dalla Restaurazione alla caduta della Destra.