Tasso, Torquato — Edward Fairfax, trans.

Small folio (10 1/8 x 7 in.; 256 x 178 mm). Title within typographic border, woodcut headpieces, second state with cancel slip tipped-in over the second stanza of leaf B1; lacking leaves M3-4, title soiled with lower outer corner mended, some light marginal dampstains and soiling, repaired marginal tears on pages 23, 191, 325, inkspots in quire Ff. Contemporary limp vellum; ties gone, upper hinge loose.

Edward Vere (signature on front flyleaf verso, ?possibly the Earl of Oxford d. 1604) — Arthur Hugh Smith Barry (armorial bookplate and Marbury library label) — John Sparrow (bookplate inside bottom cover) — Sotheby's, 19 June 1993, lot 212. acquisition: Purchased at the foregoing sale through Bernard Quaritch

STC 23698; ESTC S117565; Pforzheimer 1001 (first state)

title soiled with lower outer corner mended, some light marginal dampstains and soiling, repaired marginal tears on pages 23, 191, 325, inkspots in quire Ff. Contemporary limp vellum; ties gone, upper hinge loose.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

First edition, second state of this translation, possible presentation copy. "Fairfax translated with an eye to Carew's version of the first five cantos (1594), Harington's version of Ariosto, and Spenser's Faerie Queene. Godfrey is shot through with echoes of Homer and Virgil's Aeneid, most of them developed from hints in Tasso. Fairfax's command of the telling phrase and wide-ranging and aptly used scholarship established his reputation. There were several seventeenth-century reprints, that of 1624 being at the order of James I. It is supposed to have been a solace to Charles I during his time in prison" (ONDB). Tasso was extraordinarily popular in late sixteenth-century England and Shakespeare read the Girusalemme Liberata in the Fairfax translation (L. Potter, Life of William Shakespeare, 2012, page 316).

The front flyleaf is inscribed "To my noble friend Mr. Huntington ..." accompanied by six lines of verse in the same hand:

Godfrey of Bulloigne & his great wonders
deare cosen, I send not unto your vewe
to fire y^w up to w[ar]like mighty thunders
of culveringes, and can[n]ons are not newe
to you, no more, prosper in y^or designes,
and frend, expect from me no longer lynes" 

The Sotheby's catalogue (19 June 1993, lot 212) makes a strong case, based on the circumstance and tone, for this being the only known example of Fairfax's hand.