Tasso - Goffredo - 1581

JERUSALEM WITHOUT PEACE: THE GOFFREDO OF 1581 BETWEEN THE AUTHOR'S SUCCESSES AND REVISIONS
This Venetian edition of 1581 of the Goffredo by Torquato Tasso, printed by Grazioso Percacino, belongs to the very early diffusion cycle of the Gerusalemme Liberata, when the poem, published only a few years earlier, circulated in forms not yet fully stabilized. The text is already accompanied by arguments and allegories, a sign of an early editorial will to guide its interpretation. The richly figured printer’s mark and the layout of the title page reveal a production attentive both to readability and to visual impact. We are dealing with a book that was born in the thick of success, but also in the midst of philological and censorship tensions that would accompany Tasso for his whole life.
MARKET VALUE
Edizioni del Goffredo dei primissimi anni ’80 del Cinquecento sono tra le più ricercate, perché testimoniano la fase iniziale della diffusione del poema. Gli esemplari in condizioni medie si collocano generalmente tra 600 e 1.200 euro, con punte anche superiori per copie complete, ben conservate e con caratteristiche interessanti (margini ampi, marche ben impresse, legature coeve). L’interesse collezionistico è elevato per la vicinanza cronologica alla prima diffusione del testo.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Binding in green half-leather, boards marbled in stiff cardboard. Green splash edges. Gold decorations on the back. Title page restored at the outer margin, with a large pictorial woodcut printer’s mark, text laid out in double columns, with topics and allegories for each canto. Presence of plates and consultation tools (indexes and catalogs) as indicated on the title page. Leaves with some browning and foxing; presence of ancient handwritten annotations on the title page. In ancient books, with a centuries-long history, a few imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. (2); 24 nn; 124; 24 nn; (2).
FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Il Goffredo del S. Torquato Tasso.
Venetia, appresso Grazioso Percacino, 1581.
Torquato Tasso.
CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The 1581 edition situates itself at the most dynamic moment of the poem tassiano’s fortune, immediately following its first publication. In this phase the text circulates in variant versions, often corrected, expanded or adapted, and accompanied by interpretive tools that facilitate reading. The topics and allegories testify to an early canonization of the poem as a text “to be studied,” as well as to be read. Historically, these editions are fundamental because they document the transition from a contemporary work to an immediate classic, object of editorial and cultural appropriation.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Torquato Tasso was born in Sorrento in 1544 and died in Rome in 1595. Author of the Gerusalemme Liberata, he was one of the greatest poets of the Italian Renaissance. His life was marked by personal inquietudes and tensions with the cultural environment of his time, elements that profoundly influenced the genesis and reception of his work.
PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The Venetian editions of the early 1580s represent the heart of the first diffusion of the Gerusalemme Liberata. Printers like Grazioso Percacino actively participated in the rapid circulation of the text, producing editions that stood out for variants and apparatus. The proliferation of prints testifies to immediate and widespread success, but also to a certain textual instability, typical of contemporary works not yet fixed in a definitive form.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
EDIT16 CNCE (to be verified for the exact identification of Percacino’s 1581 edition)
ICCU/OPAC SBN – records specific to Venice, Grazioso Percacino, 1581
Adams, Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe, T-148
BM STC Italian Books, sub Tasso
Gamba, Serie dei testi di lingua, n. 1013
Graesse, Trésor de livres rares, VI, p. 29
Morazzoni, Bibliografia tassiana, sections on sixteenth-century editions
Richardson, Print Culture in Renaissance Italy, sections on the diffusion of the tassian poem