Contentione di Pluto et Iro composta per il Magnifico Cavagliero Mesere Antonio Fregoso Phileremo Poeta Facondissimo.

4to (199x135 mm). [10] leaves. Collation: a6 b4. Colophon at l. b4r. The verso of the final leaf features an epigram by Francesco Tanzi. Woodcut decorative initials on a black ground. Early 20th-century half morocco binding, with a gilt title on the spine (Wood, London). On the front pastedown armorial bookplate “Biblioteca di Casate Vecchio”.. Marginal staining and light foxing, pale ink stain to the outer margin of the last five leaves, outer corner of the final leaf repared not affecting the text, old pen scribbles on the last leaf. A wide-margined copy from the libraries of Giuseppe Cavalieri (cf. T. De Marinis, ed., Catalogue des livres compasant la bibliothèque de M. Giuseppe Cavalieri à Ferrara, Florence, 1908, no. 784) and the bookseller Giuseppe Martini (with his typical pencil notes on the flyleaves, cf. E. Barbieri, ed., Da Lucca a New York a Lugano: Giuseppe Martini libraio tra Otto e Novecento, Florence, 2017), who notes that the book also belonged to Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919).

Exceedingly rare first and only edition of this poem comprising 41 octaves. Contentione di Pluto & Iro (‘The Contention of Pluto and Irus') narrates a dispute between Pluto, the god of wealth, and the beggar Arnaeus, or Irus. The contention concludes without a victor, and the disputants are advised to seek the wise judgement of the President of the Milanese Senate, Iafredo Carlo, to whom the work is dedicated.

Unique among Fregoso's oeuvre, this poem is also preserved in a manuscript housed in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, which, however, presents a more corrupted text than the printed edition; the latter is derived directly from the autograph that Fregoso likely entrusted to his friend Francesco Tanzi, the financier of the edition.

Antonio Fregoso (or Campofregoso or Fulgoso) Fileremo (or Filareno, meaning lover of solitude) was likely born in Carrara around 1460, the illegitimate son of Spinetta of the noble Genoese Fregoso family and lord of the city. Lacking male heirs, his father legitimised Antonio by an act later ratified by Emperor Frederick III. Spinetta, allied with the Duke of Milan Francesco Sforza, appointed Cicco Simonetta as the administrator of his estate and guardian of his son in his will. Following Spinetta's death in 1467, Fregoso resided with Simonetta in Milan. In 1472, Galeazzo Maria Sforza officially granted Milanese citizenship to Fregoso, but the following year Simonetta, as ducal minister, deprived him of Carrara and Lunigiana, which were transferred to Federico Malaspina, compensating him with the fief of Sannazzaro in Lomellina. In 1478, upon Gian Galeazzo Sforza's ducal appointment, Fregoso was knighted. After a brief absence, he returned to Milan, where he wed Fiorbellina Visconti di Lodrisio. In 1499, he swore allegiance to Louis XII when the latter conquered the Duchy of Milan, thus retaining his knighthood but losing the fief of Sannazzaro.

Fregoso then chose to retire to his villa in Colturano, on the road to Lodi, from where he dispatched his initial works to Iafredo Carlo, president of the Milanese Senate. His retreat from Milan did not preclude him from frequenting the circles of Cecilia Gallerani and Ippolita Sforza Bentivoglio (as evidenced in the Novelle I, 21 and III, 9 by M. Bandello). The impact of the succession in Milan of the Sforzas, French, and Spanish after 1512 on Fregoso's life remains unclear. He likely passed away around 1530. The mention of him among the poets in the 1532 edition of L. Ariosto's Orlando furioso (XLVI, 16, v. 3 ff) does not serve to shift the terminus post quem since many of those mentioned in the poem were already deceased by that date (V. De Matteis, Fregoso, Antonio Fileremo, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 50, Rome, 1998, s.v.).

In 1506 and 1507, respectively, Fregoso published two poems, the Riso di Democrito (“Democritus' Laughter”) and the Pianto di Heraclito (“Heraclitus' Weeping”), each in fifteen chapters of tercets. Their translations into French by Michael d'Amboise (1547) and into Spanish by Alonso Lobera (1554) attest to the international renown of these two poems (often published together as I doi filosofi—‘The Two Philosophers').

The theme of fortune is explored in the form of a dialogue between the author, Lancino Curti, and Bartolomeo Simonetta in the work Dialogo de Fortuna, first printed in Milan by Pietro Martire Mantegazza in 1507. No longer in tercets but in octaves is Fregoso's most celebrated work, the Cerva bianca (“The White Doe”, Milan, Mantegazza, 1510).

In 1521, Fregoso vulgarised Lancino Curti's Silvae, and in 1525, in Milan at the press of Giovanni Giacomo Da Legnano and Bartolomeo da Crema, he published his own ‘silvae', also known as Opera nova, which includes Lamento d'Amore mendicante, Dialogo de musica, Pergoletta de le laudi de Amore, Discorsi cottidiani non vulgari, De lo istinto naturale, De la probità, and De i tre peregrini (cf. A. Dobelli, L'opera letteraria di Antonio Fregoso Fileremo, Modena, 1898).

“In definitiva prodotti come quelli del Fregoso stavano a testimoniare, nel primo ventennio del ‘500, la vitalità di una ‘letteratura mista e multiforme, drammatica, narrativa, allegorica, pronta a ogni sorta di esperimenti e però sufficientemente sciolta dall'impaccio delle regole... letteratura tutta moderna, se anche variamente assistita da antichi modelli classici e volgari'. E ne rende fede quel mannello di presenze raccolte intorno al Fileremo, vuoi interlocutori dei suoi dialoghi, vuoi pubblici laudatores delle sue imprese poetiche: editori, poeti nell'una e nell'altra lingua, letterati, oratori, quegli stessi che si ritrovano se si ha la pazienza di seguire certi fili che porge il sistema delle dedicatorie bandelliane: gli esponenti insomma di una cultura legata in fondo ancora alle sue origini cortigiane e destinata nel terzo decennio del ‘500 a frantumarsi per ‘un naturale e mirabile accordo della storia letteraria con quella politica' ” (G. Dilemmi, Un capitolo della cultura settentrionale all'inizio del ‘500, in: A. Fregoso, “Opere”, Bologna, 1976, pp. XXIX-XXX).