IL PALIO DI SIENA.
Rome: Published by Sociata Editrice Di Novissima. nd.[1932?]. Small folio. 350 x 270 mm. pp.144 with full page colour plates and other illustrations. Some lifting of the pastedown. Some spots of pale foxing as usual. Full dark brown leather. Very good copy.
SOLD. Item #195847
Limited to 1000 copies this is No 255. and an inscription from The Italian Community of Melbourne.
'The earliest known antecedents of the race are medieval. The town's central piazza was the site of public games, largely combative: pugna, ; jousting; and in the 16th century, bullfights. Public races organised by the contrade were popular from the 14th century onwards; called palio alla lunga, they were run across the whole city.
When the Grand Duke of Tuscany outlawed bullfighting in 1590, the contrade took to organising races in the Piazza del Campo. The first modern Palio (called palio alla tonda to distinguish it from the earlier palio alla lunga) took place in 1633.'.
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