(RENAISSANCE; LITERATURE; ILLUSTRATED; RARIORA;) Antonio TEMPESTA (1555-1630); Torquato TASSO (1544-1595) Engravings for the Gerusalemme Liberata. No place, printer and date (but Paris, François Langlois Ciartres, 1644). § Oblong 4to (295x185), engraved title page with dedication and coat-of-arms of the Barberinis and 20 engraved plates, each with eight lines of verses from the Gerusalemme and interleaved with blank leaves. Contemporary vellum. Very fine copy, almost uncut, on large paper with engravings neatly impressed. Beautiful series of engravings by Antonio Tempesta for Tasso’s Gerusalemme liberata and considered the first illustrations of this work to be published separately, without the text. A first issue, with a dedication to the Duke of Bracciano Virginio Orsini written by the man of letters Giulio Roscio di Orte, can be ascribed to the year 1590, while a second one, with a dedication by Tempesta to Taddeo Barberini, can be ascribed to the second half of the 1620s. The same plates of the original album by Tempesta, with the dedication to Barberini, were edited by the printer François Langlois (1588-1647, known as Ciartres, from his hometown, Chartres) and printed in Paris in 1644. To explain the passage of the original Tempesta plates to Paris, Granati hypothesizes the intervention of the Lyon painter Jacques Stella (1596-1657) who, having collaborated with both Tempesta and Langlois, would have been in the ideal position for this purpose: “it is possible that Jacques Stella came into possession of the Tempesta original, perhaps delivering it to the studio of François Langlois who may have received authorization for a new publication from Antonio Tempesta himself” (Granati, translated). OF THE UTMOST RARITY, No copies on the antiquarian market . Ref: A. GRANATI Jacques Stella per la serie della Gerusalemme Liberata del Tempesta nell’edizione di François Langlois In: “Storia dell'arte” in tempo reale, https://www.storiadellarterivista.it/blog/2024/04/10/jacques-stella-per-la-serie-della-gerusalemme-liberata-del-tempesta-nelledizione-di-francois-langlois/