Delle Rime del Sig. Torquato Tasso, parte prima. Di novo dal medesimo in questa nuova impressione ordinate, corrette, accresciute, & date in luce. [With:] Delle Rime del Sig. Torquato Tasso, parte seconda. Di novo date in luce, con li argomenti & espositioni dello stesso autore.

First edition of Tasso's lyric poetry.

Printers device on title pages (Vol. 1: †1, Vol. 2: †2), woodcut headpieces, ornaments and initials throughout.

2 vols. in one. 8vo (153 x 100mm). [8]ff, 341, [3]pp. (†8, y4 blank); [4]ff, 194pp, [3]ff. (†4 blank).  Nineteenth-century quarter calf over marbled boards, gilt bands on spine, gilt lettering in second compartment (extremities bumped and minor wear).

Brescia, Pietro Maria Marchetti, 

 First authorised edition of Tasso’s short lyric verse in two volumes. Published in the final, troubled years of the poet’s life, this was the only edition of the poems to be endorsed by Tasso himself, with his extensive prose commentary. The volumes are dedicated to the Duke and Duchess of Mantua, on whose intervention he was released from his incarceration. Comprising elegant sonnets, canzone, madrigals and stanze among others, in his commentary for each Tasso acknowledges the influence of literary figures both classical and trecento, from Homer and Martial, to Dante and Petrarch.

Staining to title page and paper imperfections at head, not touching text; occasional worming of blank margins throughout; paper flaw to lower blank margin of S6 (Vol. I), not affecting text.

CNCE  28576. Adams T254, 258. BMSTC (Italian) p.660. Gamba 969.

Stock Code: 227754