1745 ❧ In a contemporary binding with matching contemporary clamshell box. TASSO, TORQUAT...

1745 ❧ In a contemporary binding with matching contemporary clamshell box. TASSO, TORQUATO. 1544-1595. La Gerusalemme Liberata. Venice: Giambatista Albrizzi, 1745. Folio (540 x 297 mm). Half-title, title page printed in red and black with engraved vignette, engraved allegorical frontispiece, engraved dedicatory portrait of Maria Theresa of Austria by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, 20 full-page engraved plates with ornamental borders; 25 pictorial head-pieces, tail-pieces, and vignettes (including 5 full-page and others mostly half-page accompanying the italicized Argomento blocks), historiated initials to each Canto. Minor, light sporadic foxing and marginal offset where sheets faced the ink plates. Contemporary full mottled calf, covers elaborately decorated with a broad outer gilt frame of rolling lace-work floral patterns and intricate corner-pieces surrounding gilt-stamped central armorial/rococo cartouche centerpiece, spine gilt, edges gilt; housed in a rare contemporary full mottled calf folding clamshell case, spine gilt, red morocco lettering-piece. Trivial superficial scuffing to the leather surfaces and slight rubbing/bumping to the outer volume corners; the folding case with minor wear, minor split lines on joints, and superficial leather loss. THE APOGEE OF 18TH-CENTURY VENETIAN BOOK ILLUSTRATION, FINELY BOUND WITH A RARE CONTEMPORARY FOLDING CASE. FIRST EDITION, second issue, of the first of Albrizzi's sumptuously illustrated editions of the Gerusalemme Liberata, with each plate captioned with the names and coat of arms of its specific noble sponsor (replaced by poetic verse in the second edition). 'Albrizzi's patronage of Piazzetta reached its climax in the most famous of all Venetian eighteenth-century books--the Gerusalemme Liberata... For this book Piazzetta produced some seventy drawings' (Haskell, Painters and Patrons, pp. 335-336). 'It is apt to consider the most beautiful illustrated book, the Gerusalemme Liberata by Piazzetta. Piazzetta proceeds from miracle to miracle--gives a bold proportion and transforms vignettes into the first real decorative etchings, which occupy a full-page' (Morazzoni). Brunet V: 666; Cohen-De Ricci 978; Morazzoni 256. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing