Ariosto - Orlando Furioso - 1573

Ariosto Ludovico

Orlando Furioso

In Venetia - 1573 -
Appresso Vincenzo Valgrisi

(16), 654, (34) p.
Sign.: +8 A-Z8 a-u8

In 4o - 25 X 18,5 cm. -
Corsivo, romain type, double-column text, explanatory prose.

STIMATISSIMA EDITION VALGRISI OF THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL ILLUSTRATED WORK OF ARIOSTO IN THE 16th CENTURY.

The adventures of Orlando, Ruggiero and Bradamante amid war, love and madness.

Contains the notes and explanations by Girolamo Ruscelli, the life of the author by G.B. Pigna, and 5 additional cantos, for a total of 51 cantos with the accompanying plates.

Valgrisi’s plates are the first full-page illustrations for Ariosto. The publisher pushed beyond Giolito, as earlier in the 1552 Boccaccio, in an attempt to compete with the Giolites editions. Valgrisi also placed his matrices in the didactic tradition of Dante Marcolini.

The illustration is mentioned on the title page and at the beginning of Ruscelli’s dedication (1556) to Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. Ruscelli explains to the reader the application of perspective rules to the multiple scenes present in these plates.
The upper part of the matrix often becomes a map, offering, as Philip Hofer notes, "a tour of the canto through a hippogriff."

Valgrisi’s artist (probably not Dosso Dossi, see Hofer p. 32) often departed from Giolito in the choice of the main scenes to illustrate, relegating Giolito subjects to the background…
Valgrisi’s matrices are also printed within frames with figures and grotesques.

There is also a splendid frontispiece in an elaborate architectural frame with caryatids, masks, grotesques and angels.
The imposing leather binding is topped by a rich frieze bearing the author’s profile in apotheosis (Divino Lodovico Ariosto is inscribed), depicted as a crowned poet or a Roman emperor.

Excellent contemporary binding in full stiff parchment leather, with boards covered in colored card.
Beautiful contemporaneous manuscript note of the title on the tail.
Slight parchment erosion corresponding to the upper cuff.

Good condition of the interior.
Pages fairly fresh and compact, aside from sporadic yellowing and minor marginal tears, a bit more noticeable at the beginning and end of the text.
Nevertheless the 51 splendid plates and the text are regularly readable.
Small restoration on pages 436 and 523, in addition to a slight restoration (or perhaps a printer’s crease), without loss of text on page 117.
Small tear on page 373.

Good copy, complete and original in every part.
COLLATION. COMPLETE