Incognita or Love and Duty Reconcil'd

First published in 1692, this short novel is set in Florence at carnival. Two young Englishmen, Aurelian and Hippolito, arrive as Aurelian's father has arranged his son's marriage to Juliana. In mask and borrowed names Aurelian falls in love with a lady who calls herself Incognita, while Hippolito, wearing Aurelian's identity, is drawn to Leonora. Street fights, a supposed killing, and mistaken persons tangle the pairs until the masks drop and the fathers' contracts line up with the lovers' choices. The book is a Restoration prose comedy of disguise, not a stage play and not a Florentine chronicle.

Quarter bound in dark blue leather with cream cloth boards printed with a design in blue and orange by van Rossem. No dust-jacket. The Presentation Volume for 1951.