LUDOVICO ARIOSTO (1474 - 1533)

Orlando Furioso di M. Lodovico Ariosto. Tomo I. [IV.]. Venezia, presso Antonio Zatta, 1772-3

§ 4to, Four volumes. I: [16], LX, 300 pp., [21] leaves of plates, sign.: *-**4, a-g4, h2, A-OO4, PP2; II: [214] leaves, [15] leaves of plates, sign.: A-FFF4, GGG6; III: [206] leaves, [16] leaves of plates; IV: [268] leaves, [14] leaves of plates, sign.: A-XXX4. XIXth century blue paper binding, four title pages, each one with its own gorgeous engraved frontispiece and title page inscribed into ornamental frame; a beautiful, crisp copy with very limpid engravings and a fine chiaroscuro rendering
. One of the most famous and fascinating illustrated book printed in Venice in the XVIIIth century, exquisitely engraved by several of the most famous artist of the age: 58 full-page and 36 half-page engravings, 51 argomenti engraved at the beginning of each canto, 20 among heads and tailpieces, designed by Novelli and others and engraved by Giuliano Zuliani (1730 - 1814), Tommaso Baratti (fl. 1772 - 1801), Ferdinando Fambrini (fl. 1763 - 1794), Giacomo Malosso (fl. 1772 - 1773) and others. The text was edited and revised by Leonardo Marcellotto (fl. 1744 - 1773) and Antonio Cilis (fl. 1772 - 1773), with the addition of a biography of Ludovico Ariosto by Giovanni Andrea Barotti (1701 - 1772) at the beginning of the first volume.
Ref: Agnelli-Ravegnani, Annali delle edizioni ariostee, I, pp. 202-204; Brunet I, 437; De Grassi, p. 169