Lodovico Castelvetro e la "intitolatione gratiosa de' libri a spetial persona"

Among the four works by Lodovico Castelvetro printed while he was alive, only one work, Poetica d'Aristotele vulgarizzata e sposta, was accompanied with a dedication of the author to Maximilian II of Habsburg. Through the analysis of the two most significant writings − Giunta al primo libro delle 'Prose' di M. Pietro Bembo, where the very first treatment of the genre 'epistola dedicatoria' appears, and Corretione d'alcune cose del 'Dialogo delle lingue' di Benedetto Varchi − the essay illustrates the hostility of Castelvetro towards the very widespread praxis of dedicating printed books, that was a symbol of the servility to which too often the intellectuals of that times were prone to submit. Proud of his independence and his consistency, when Castelvetro chose to thank with a dedication Maximilian II for the hospitality and protection offered to him and his brother, he found a way to draft, against any rule of that "genre", an ackward excuse to the real dedicatees of all his works: the readers.