This is a revised critical edition of philosopher and scientist, Francesco Patrizi's manuscript, Il Delfino, overo del bacio (c.1555), with an English translation and commentary. Il Delfino, or ‘The Kiss’ survives in a single manuscript, compiled by an assistant and interspersed with autograph corrections by Patrizi himself. The only modern critical edition of the text, edited by Danilo Aguzzi Barbagli (1975), is known to contain many errors that prevent a correct understanding of the work. This book therefore fills this historiographical gap and at the same time provides a reliable text for further translations of Patrizi's work into other languages.

Tommaso Ghezzani researches the history of Renaissance philosophy, aesthetics, and science, with particular attention to the intersection between philosophical, literary, and visual cultures. He received his PhD from the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa in Italy, and the University of Geneva in Switzerland. Tommaso has been a Visiting PhD Researcher and Adjunct Instructor of Italian Studies at New York University, and Assistant Instructor of Italian Studies at Princeton University. He is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Transnational Italian Studies at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, USA.