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 P. Gironimo Giglio, and associates, (1559).

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

Full morocco binding, spine with raised bands and label, and gold title «TASSO E TERE» (wear 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.

Brings together the three books already published 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 long-lasting examples of the Italian Sixteenth Century 'book of letters': a model of style, eloquence and morality, a precious source on court life, on intellectual networks, and on the author's personal life.

Sixteenth-century edition of notable philological and historical significance, considered the definitive edition of the first volume of the Letters. A work sought after by collectors of Italian Renaissance literature and of the Tassian foundation; complete copies in contemporary bindings are fairly rare on the antiquarian market.

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