ffred's
nearly-forgotten treasuresSuch is indeed the common course of human affairs. We talk of that as at a distance which is close to us, run after phantoms, and neglect what really exists.
Call it pulp fiction, call it Harlequin romance, this late 1790's work by Christian August Vulpius, became immensely popular, despite that literati treated it with disdain, if not outright horror. And then? So widely imitated was it, that it was quickly forgotten, and wound up in the dustbin of literature. This is a political parable, perhaps? Rinaldo Rinaldini at least has one scholastic defender: Edward T. Larkin, who wrote this article. See also this not unsympathetic essay by Lars Sanders.
John Hinckley1 produced a three-volume English translation in 1800 (London: Longman & Rees), which is not freely available online:2 My online sources are from American editions, pirated from England, an all-too-common practice in those days. [In fact, literary piracy worked both directions across the ocean, to the extent that Charles Frederick Briggs was himself a strong advocate of international copyright law.]
The text is taken primarily from this scan of the 1848 edition3 (Philadelphia: John B. Perry), the only one I could find comprising the entire novel. This scan of an 1824 edition and another scan of an 1832 edition4 served as backups. [Since then, I have discovered an 1831 London edition (Volumes I, II, and III) in much better condition, and would have used that instead had I known of it.]
Note that the author's name is consistently spelled "Vulvius" in the available editions, and that J. Hinckley is spelled "I. Hinkley:" I have taken the liberty of correcting this. Also—aside from fixing obvious typographical errors—where variations in spelling occur, I typically apply the most commonly occurring form. Variations in capitalization (especially of noble titles), however, are generally left alone.
So here it is: the master HTML version, the home-brew Kindle version, and the actual Amazon publication.
As Rinaldo says: "Come, less argument, and more liquor!"
January 26, 2021 [Updated July 28, 2026]
————
1A "man of singularly penurious habits," according to his entry in Bibliotheca Britannica, 1824, p. 498. See also the December 1814 account of his death in The Gentleman's Magazine, v. 84, pt. 2, p. 609.
2Available on a restricted basis from Gale ECCO through subscribing academic institutions; see the WorldCat entry for details. Since then I have obtained a copy, which turned out to consist only of Volume I, and posted it to the Internet Archive.
3The "Conclusion" of the 1848 edition is an addition, not part of the Hinckley translation. Given the content, the publisher, and the year of publication, I believe that it was written by George Lippard, the author of Washington and his Generals.
4The third volume of this edition consists of Ferrandino, which is a sequel to Rinaldo Rinaldini.