Lot 4
  • 4

Ariosto, Ludovico

Estimate
6,000 - 8,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • book
Orlando furioso. Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1562



4to (9 5/8 x 6 3/4 in.; 245 x 173 mm). Woodcut architectural title-border incorporating medallion portrait of Ariosto and Valgrisi's serpent device, 46 full-page woodcut illustrations printed within ornamental borders, woodcut headpieces and historiated initials, large woodcut serpent device on final page; title shaved, laid down, and soiled, 4 leaves at front and 2 at end remargined at fore-edge, L3 with long repaired tear into text, occasional other minor marginal repair, some soiling throughout, a number of leaves trimmed close (but not shaved) at top margin. Nineteenth-century wooden boards decorated with brass bosses in an earlier Venetian style; rebacked.

Provenance

Carl Edelheim (bookplate) — Robert Hoe (morocco book label)

Literature

Mortimer, Italian 29

Catalogue Note

The woodblocks for this handsome edition were cut for Valgrisi's first quarto edition of 1556; they were reworked for the present edition: "small areas of shaded ground were cut away from each block, lightening the total effect of the woodcut" (Mortimer).