THE SICILIAN REVOLUTION OF 1647. 4to. [19.5 x 14 cm]. (4), 344 [i.e. 342] pp, (2). Bound in neat 18th century cartonnato with all edges marbled in red. Leaf B4 with nearly invisible slice through upper half, not affecting text and skillfully repaired; otherwise an excellent, fresh copy. Illegible contemporary ownership inscription on title-page (“Ad usum….”). Scarce first edition of this account of the Sicilian Revolution which began in Palermo in May 1647 and soon spread to Messina and Naples. Primarily composed of poor, over-taxed members of the lower echelons of society, the rebels proclaimed themselves an independent republic in October of 1647 but were ultimately defeated in July of 1648. This populist movement took place at exactly the same time as a similar movement in England; however, “the Sicilian revolutionaries had almost none of the advantages of the contemporary English Parliamentarians. They did not represent a rising class of prosperous country gentlemen and capitalist merchants; they had no leaders of the calibre of Pym and Cromwell… The Sicilian revolution was never backed by a consistent political philosophy” (Koenigsberger). “In May, 1647, a rebellion broke out in Palermo among the lower class of people, which the viceroy, Don Pedro Fajardo Marquis de Los Veles, was not in a condition to resist. The constant increase of the taxes on articles of food, which, especially in the manner in which they were then raised, were the most felt and the most burdensome kind of taxation for the people, excited a tumult which lasted for many months, occasioned serious dissensions between the nobility and the people, and was only subdued by a mixture of firmness and clemency on the part of the Cardinal Trivulzio, the successor of Los Veles. The news of the disturbances in Sicily reached Naples, when everything there was ripe for an insurrection, which had for a long time been fermenting, and agitating men’s minds…” (ibid). The present work was composed by a professor at the University of Messina and decries the infidelity of the Palermans, holding it up in stark contrast to the loyal conduct of the Messinans. OCLC shows five copies in US libraries: Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Stanford, and the Cleveland Public Library. The Newberry holds the second edition, published in 1649. * BM Italian II, p. 728; Melzi, Dizionario di opere anonime e pseudonime di scrittori italiani II, p. 351; Lozzi II, 3320 (“assai raro”); Moncada, 1868; and cf Koenigsberger, “The Revolt of Palermo in 1647” The Cambridge Historical Journal Vol. 8 (1946), pp. 129-144. On Reina, cf the entry in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani.