Bernardo Tasso - Li tre libri delle lettere - 1559

TASSO, Bernardo (1493-1569).
The three books of the letters of M. Bernardo Tasso. To which, again, the fourth book has been added.
In Venice, at the shop of P. Gironimo Giglio, and companions, (1559).

Octavo (approximately 150 × 100 mm). Pages numbered: (8), 255, (4); altogether pp. (16), 510, (9) approx.
Printer's mark on the title page (crest with lilies and pyramid within a figurative frame with the motto «Virtus nescit labi»), initials and woodcut ornaments, table of addressees at the end.

Full brown morocco binding, back with raised bands and a gilt-stamped title «TASSO E TERE» (wears and losses to the headcaps and corners, as in the photo).

Definitive and complete edition of the first volume of Bernardo Tasso’s epistolary (father of Torquato), published under the author’s supervision in Venice.

It gathers the three books already published previously and for the first time adds the fourth book. The letters, addressed to princes, cardinals, scholars and friends (Annibal Caro, the Prince of Salerno, the Duke of Mantua, Mons. d’Aras and many others), constitute one of the most important and enduring examples of the 'book of letters' of fifteenth-century Italian literature: a model of style, eloquence, and morality, a precious source on court life, on intellectual networks, and on the author’s personal story.

Sixteenth-century edition of notable philological and historical significance, given the definitive text of the first volume of the Letters. A sought-after work for collectors of Italian Renaissance literature and of Tassian foundations; complete copies in contemporary bindings are rather rare on the antique market.

Genuine, complete copy, with the typical signs of time (browned paper, some stains and slight wear to the binding), but fully usable and of definite collectible and bibliographic interest.