Tasso - Goffredo - 1583

LA GERUSALEMME, CORRETTA, EMENDATA E RIMESSA IN SCENA, CON L'AGGIUNTA DEI CANTI
This rare Venetian edition of 1583 of Goffredo by Torquato Tasso testifies to one of the most delicate and fascinating moments in the editorial fortune of Gerusalemme Liberata, here still presented under the primitive title of “Goffredo.” The volume belongs to that period of continual revisions, corrections, and reissues that marked Tasso’s tormented relationship with his poem, in a cultural climate dominated by moral scrutiny and the philological obsession of the late Counter-Reformation. The copy is distinguished also by the presence of the Five Cantos by Camillo Camilli, autonomously added to the Tasso poem in an effort to expand and complete the epic material. The copy, genuinely lived, preserves a strong material allure: a rustic parchment binding, fresh and wide sheets, ancient handwritten notes and signs of reading that reveal the concrete profile of a book really used, studied, and handed down.
MARKET VALUE
The sixteenth-century editions of Goffredo / Gerusalemme Liberata printed in the years immediately following the first edition of 1581 are today highly sought after, especially when complete with the Five Cantos of Camillo Camilli and preserved in an ancient binding. Similar copies appear on the international antiquarian market generally between 900 and 1,200 euros, with higher fluctuations for particularly fresh, complete copies or those from important collections. Truly genuine parchment copies from the period, untrimmed and free of invasive restorations, are increasingly difficult to obtain.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Ancient soft parchment binding with signs of use and staining. Frontispiece illustrated with an allegorical emblem of Peace and a second frontispiece autonomous for the Five Cantos of Camillo Camilli. Marginal copy, some stains and browning and normal aging. An ancient handwritten note present on the frontispiece. The lower margin of the first frontispiece shows a minor corner loss, but without loss of text. Some tears with loss of text, specifically on page 47 and in the final quires. In old books with a multi-century history, a few imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pp. (2); 24 nn; 236; 18 nn; (2); 8 nn; 58; (2).
FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Il Goffredo del S. Torquato Tasso.
In Venetia, presso Francesco de’ Franceschi Senese, 1583.
Tasso, Torquato.
CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The title “Goffredo” belongs to the first and most unsettled editorial phase of Gerusalemme Liberata, when the poem had not yet definitively assumed the name by which it would go down in history. In these years Tasso repeatedly subjects the text to revisions, corrections, and reconsiderations, driven as much by literary criticism as by moral and religious suspicions that affected post-Tridentine epic poetry. This Venetian edition fully reflects such instability: the text is declared “newly corrected,” accompanied by moral allegories, interpretive apparatus, and variants that transform the poem not only into a literary work but into an object of exegetical control. Of particular interest is the presence of the Five Cantos by Camillo Camilli, an editorial attempt to integrate and extend Tasso’s narration with additional episodes. Camilli, a learned man and prolific compiler in the Venetian scene, intervened on the poem with a spirit almost philological but also commercial, contributing to the rapid diffusion of the text among the Italian public of the late sixteenth century. The woodcut emblem of Peace on the frontispiece symbolically dialogues with the heart of the poem itself: holy war, redemption, the conquest of Jerusalem, and the constant tension between heroic violence and spiritual order. In this historical phase the Tasso book becomes one of the great cultural laboratories of European modernity, suspended between chivalry, religious censorship, autobiographical melancholy, and epic spectacle.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Torquato Tasso was born in Sorrento in 1544 and died in Rome in 1595. Considered one of the greatest Italian poets of the Renaissance, he led a life marked by psychological instability, religious tensions, and conflicts with court circles. Gerusalemme Liberata, published in full in 1581 after a long circulation in manuscript, became an immediate European masterpiece, influencing literature, music, theater, and the visual arts for centuries. Tasso represents the transition point between Renaissance harmony and the unsettled sensibility of early Baroque.
PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
Francesco de’ Franceschi Senese was one of the most important Venetian editors of the late sixteenth century, particularly active in disseminating vernacular literature and great Italian poetic texts. The numerous reissues of Goffredo attest to the enormous commercial success of Tasso’s work already in the early years after publication. The editions of 1582-1584 constitute today a bibliographically complex group, rich in typographical variants, internal corrections, and different editorial states, often difficult to categorize with precision.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
EDIT16, CNCE related to the Venetian editions of Goffredo by Torquato Tasso printed by Francesco de’ Franceschi in 1583.
ICCU / OPAC SBN, censuses of the Venetian editions of Goffredo.
WorldCat, institutional copies preserved in European and American libraries.
Adams, Catalogue of Books Printed on the Continent of Europe, T-146.
Graesse, Trésor de livres rares et précieux, VII.
Gamba, Serie dei testi di lingua.
Salviati, Della Gerusalemme Liberata e delle sue edizioni.
Guido Baldassarri, studi sulla tradizione editoriale tassiana.
Treccani, entry “Torquato Tasso”.