TASS (The). La Gerusalemme liberata di Torquato... - Lot 76 - Ader

TASS (The). La Gerusalemme liberata di Torquato Tasso con le figure di Giambatista Piazzetta alla sacra real maesta di Maria Teresa d'Austria regina d'Ungheria, e di Boemia, ec. Venice: Giovanni Battista Albrizzi, 1745. - In-folio, 446 x 300: frontispice, (14 ff. first blank), 255 ff. mal foliotés 253, (3 ff. last blank.), 20 plates. Red morocco, plates decorated with 3 frames with gilt castors and gilt irons at the corners, and a crowned virgin coat of arms surrounded by a rocaille decoration in the centre, decorated spine with nerves, inside gilt castor, gilt edges (period binding). Luxurious edition dedicated to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, of this work rightly considered one of the most beautiful Italian illustrated books of the 18th century. The illustration includes a beautiful frontispiece, a large full-page portrait of the empress, a title vignette, 22 lettering, 20 chapter headings containing the engraved arguments, 21 culs-de-lampe, 6 of which are full-page, and 20 plates with a separate symbolic and historical frame, all finely engraved after compositions by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta (1682-1754). A copy in present binding, first issue, printed on fine Dutch paper, with the dedications engraved at the bottom of the plates and the list of subscribers at the top. First cover and spine faded, hinges split, caps flattened, last box partly undone, blunt corners, rubbing on the cuts, gold of the first cover partly erased. Interior very well preserved despite traces of wetness on the edge of some leaves.