![[3735414] The History of Rinaldo Rinaldini, Captain of Banditti. From the German Vulvius. In Three Volumes. Christian August Vulpius.](https://rareamericana.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/3735414.jpg?width=768&height=1000&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1756236903)
The History of Rinaldo Rinaldini, Captain of Banditti. From the German Vulvius. In Three Volumes.
“Cowardly villain! That you yourself dare not do. Amelia you shall certainly be rescued…”
First published in 1798, this scarce Boston edition of this German “robber novel” was “Printed for the Booksellers” in 1832 in a handy three-volume small format.
Captain of Banditti, Rinaldo Rinaldini is a chivalrous yet feared Italian outlaw who leads a band of robbers through the mountains. Though living outside the law, Rinaldini acts by a personal code of honor, aiding the oppressed while taking revenge on the corrupt. His adventures unfold in perilous encounters, elaborate disguises, daring escapes, and episodes that blend romance, intrigue, and moral conflict.
Rinaldo Rinaldini entered the American print record in 1810 as a New York libretto, followed by a 32-page abridged chapbook in South Carolina in 1814—each known in only a single copy. The first full-length American edition appeared in German at Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1820, with later editions issued in Boston (1824, 1829, 1832), New York (1832), and Philadelphia (1845, 1848). Across this forty-year span, copies of all editions remain uncommon, ranging from excessively rare to scarce.
Description: The History of Rinaldo Rinaldini, Captain of Banditti. From the German Vulvius. In Three Volumes.
Boston: Printed for the Booksellers, 1832. Three small octavo volumes (approx. 5½ x 3¼ in.; 140 x 83 mm). Each with frontispiece; pp. 216, 220, and 216. Provenance: early ink ownership inscription, “Mr. H. Greenslit.” Contemporary full calf, spines with gilt-tooled compartments with floral or foliate motifs and small flourishes and black gilt-lettered morocco labels, all edges sprinkled. Some rubbing and wear to spines and joints, more evident on the final volume, which shows small losses at both ends and a hairline crack to the lower joint. Volume I with early staining from the front endpapers through roughly the first fifty pages, largely confined to upper margins; scattered foxing throughout. Overall, a very good and attractive set.
[3735414]OCLC: Harvard, NYU, Penn State, Univ. of California Riverside, Univ. of Missouri, St. Louis.
Price: $250.00