Tasso, La Gerusalemme liberata, Venice, 1745, contemporary vellum

TASSO, TORQUATO

La Gerusalemme liberata. Venice: Giambatista Albrizzi, 1745

folio (450 x 305mm.), half-title, engraved frontispiece, title printed in red and black with engraved vignette, engraved portrait of the dedicatee the Empress Maria Theresa, list of subscribers, engraved initials, each canto with a full-page engraved plate (each with printed dedication to a different person) and an engraved cartouche, engraved tailpieces (some full-page, two bound as plates at the end of canti 8 and 20), contemporary vellum, green lettering-piece (chipped), binding slightly soiled

A magnificent edition of La Gerusalemme liberata, with engravings by Polanzani after Giovanni Battista Piazzetta. The tailpiece at the end of canto 20 gives the price as 8 zecchini.

LITERATURE:

Cohen-De Ricci 978

PROVENANCE:

Duca di Montealeone, inscription on half-title dated January 1755; Library of Virginia House, Richmond (VA), bookplate