Luigi Pulci - Il Morgante Maggiore – 3 volumes – Gravures de Moreau le Jeune – Ex-libris Goldsmid - 1768-1768

Complete set in three volumes of this eighteenth-century edition of the famous Italian chivalric poem Il Morgante Maggiore, a major work by Luigi Pulci, an important figure in Florentine Renaissance literature.

Edition and illustration

Edition published in 1768, bearing the London address with the mention « Si trova in Parigi, Appresso Marcello Prault ».

This edition is illustrated with engravings by Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune (1741-1814), a famous French draughtsman and engraver of the eighteenth century.

The frontispiece of the third volume bears the signature and the date « J. M. Moreau 1768 ».

The edition normally includes three frontispiece title-pages and a portrait of Luigi Pulci. Presence and completeness of the illustrations to be confirmed for this copy.

Bindings

Magnificent old uniform full calf bindings in tawny morocco, with:

* richly gilt spines with fleuron and vegetal motifs.
* red morocco title pieces.
* particularly elegant and refined gilding.
* red edges.
* marbled endpapers.

The three volumes present a particularly harmonious and decorative ensemble, characteristic of the fine eighteenth-century binding.

Provenance

Presence of a remarkable old inlaid bookplate with heraldry of John Louis Goldsmid, accompanied by the Latin motto « Concordia et Sedulitate ».

This identifiable provenance adds further interest to this copy.

Contents

Il Morgante Maggiore is a grand Italian epic poem mixing chivalric adventures, battles, humor and satire, around the characters of Roland and Morgante.

It constitutes one of the landmark works of Italian literature of the fifteenth century and heralds the great chivalric poems of the Renaissance.

Bibliographical collation of the edition

* Volume I: XXXVI + 391 pages.
* Volume II: 409 pages.
* Volume III: 482 pages.

That is about 1,318 pages of text and preliminary matter, according to the standard bibliographical collation.

Condition

Very good overall for this old set of more than 250 years.

Binding solid and particularly decorative, with wear, small marks and signs of use, notably on the spines and the crowns.

Gilding still well present and attractive.

Interior clean and well preserved, paper relatively fresh, some foxing, browning and time traces.

Very beautiful Italian bibliophilic set of the eighteenth century, bringing together a sought-after old edition, fine engravings, decorative bindings and identifiable heraldic provenance.

The photographs are part of the description.