TASSO, Torquato. La Gerusalemme liberata, con le figure di Giambatista Piazzetta. Venice: Giambattista Albrizzi, 1745.
TASSO, Torquato. La Gerusalemme liberata, con le figure di Giambatista Piazzetta. Venice: Giambattista Albrizzi, 1745.
Madame de Pompadour’s fine copy of the first edition of Tasso’s Liberata with Piazzetta's illustrations, the most important Venetian illustrated book of the eighteenth century. All plates and the portrait of the Empress are in the first state, with the dedications beneath each plate and the rococo scrolls around the culs-de-lampes (omitted in the second state). The publisher’s far-reaching ambition is testified by a prospectus issued by him, a copy of which, scrutinized by Andrew Robison, is kept in the Pierpont Morgan Library; there Albrizzi declares: ‘Nothing will be lacking, neither in the correctness of the text, nor in the quality of the type, and of the paper: but above all I have endeavoured to distinguish my edition with the singularity and perfection of more than sixty plates, all of different designs, drawn by the celebrated painter Piazzetta, and incised in copper by the most talented engravers. This printing will satisfy not only the poets, but also the painters, and the sculptors; and I expect that so many, and such fine ornamentations may never again be seen in any book’ (quoted in Knox).
‘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). At the height of Venetian book production, Piazzetta's Tasso stands out as one of the grandest examples, and a paradigm of the Venetian pastoral style. ‘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). The vignettes are inspired genre scenes with shepherds, animals, nudes and richly clad Venetian ladies. The 20 head-pieces contain the argomenti to each Canto. George Knox, Piazzetta. A tercentenary exhibition of drawings, prints, and books (Washington, 1983), p. 168; Lanckoronska 240; Morazzoni 256; Andrew Robison, 'The Albrizzi-Piazzetta Tasso,' in: Non Solus I (Urban-Champaign, IL), 1974. The Pompadour arms on this fine binding indicates that she owned two copies of this masterpiece; a different copy, with coloured plates, sold as lot 1314 in the auction of her library in 1765, and this copy may have remained at Versailles, as suggested by the label on the front pastedown.
Folio (435 x 300mm). Half-title, title printed in red and black with engraved vignette, engraved allegorical frontispiece, engraved portrait of the dedicatee, Empress Maria Theresa, by Felix Polanzani after Giambattista Piazzetta; 20 plates with ornamental borders, 20 pictorial head-pieces and 20 culs-de-lampe (5 full-page), full-page double portrait of Piazzetta and Albrizzi at end, all engraved by M. Schedl after Piazzetta, numerous engraved historiated initials. Contemporary French red morocco, panelled spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece, sides richly decorated in gilt with large borders of floral motifs and small tools, large gilt central arms of Madame de Pompadour (Olivier 2399, fer 1) (corners and edges lightly rubbed); later cloth box. Provenance: Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise of Pompadour (1721-1764, armorial device on binding) – ‘Versailles’ (booklabel) – 19th-century ink bibliographical notes in French on front endpaper.
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TASSO, Torquato. La Gerusalemme liberata, con le figure di Giambatista Piazzetta. Venice: Giambattista Albrizzi, 1745.
Madame de Pompadour’s fine copy of the first edition of Tasso’s Liberata with Piazzetta's illustrations, the most important Venetian illustrated book of the eighteenth century. All plates and the portrait of the Empress are in the first state, with the dedications beneath each plate and the rococo scrolls around the culs-de-lampes (omitted in the second state). The publisher’s far-reaching ambition is testified by a prospectus issued by him, a copy of which, scrutinized by Andrew Robison, is kept in the Pierpont Morgan Library; there Albrizzi declares: ‘Nothing will be lacking, neither in the correctness of the text, nor in the quality of the type, and of the paper: but above all I have endeavoured to distinguish my edition with the singularity and perfection of more than sixty plates, all of different designs, drawn by the celebrated painter Piazzetta, and incised in copper by the most talented engravers. This printing will satisfy not only the poets, but also the painters, and the sculptors; and I expect that so many, and such fine ornamentations may never again be seen in any book’ (quoted in Knox).
‘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). At the height of Venetian book production, Piazzetta's Tasso stands out as one of the grandest examples, and a paradigm of the Venetian pastoral style. ‘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). The vignettes are inspired genre scenes with shepherds, animals, nudes and richly clad Venetian ladies. The 20 head-pieces contain the argomenti to each Canto. George Knox, Piazzetta. A tercentenary exhibition of drawings, prints, and books (Washington, 1983), p. 168; Lanckoronska 240; Morazzoni 256; Andrew Robison, 'The Albrizzi-Piazzetta Tasso,' in: Non Solus I (Urban-Champaign, IL), 1974. The Pompadour arms on this fine binding indicates that she owned two copies of this masterpiece; a different copy, with coloured plates, sold as lot 1314 in the auction of her library in 1765, and this copy may have remained at Versailles, as suggested by the label on the front pastedown.
Folio (435 x 300mm). Half-title, title printed in red and black with engraved vignette, engraved allegorical frontispiece, engraved portrait of the dedicatee, Empress Maria Theresa, by Felix Polanzani after Giambattista Piazzetta; 20 plates with ornamental borders, 20 pictorial head-pieces and 20 culs-de-lampe (5 full-page), full-page double portrait of Piazzetta and Albrizzi at end, all engraved by M. Schedl after Piazzetta, numerous engraved historiated initials. Contemporary French red morocco, panelled spine gilt in compartments, gilt morocco lettering-piece, sides richly decorated in gilt with large borders of floral motifs and small tools, large gilt central arms of Madame de Pompadour (Olivier 2399, fer 1) (corners and edges lightly rubbed); later cloth box. Provenance: Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise of Pompadour (1721-1764, armorial device on binding) – ‘Versailles’ (booklabel) – 19th-century ink bibliographical notes in French on front endpaper.
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