TASSO (Torquato)
La Gerusalemme liberata. Paris, appresso A. Delalain, P. Durand & G.C. Molini (da' torchi di Quillau),
"RELIURE DE PRESENT" DESIGNED BY GRAVELOT FOR THIS EDITION
A fine example of the “reliure de présent” designed by Gravelot for this edition of Tasso’s epic poem. Derome le jeune is in all probability the binder as a copy described by Ray (and illustrated in his Appendix 1) has his ticket. Some of the tools are also found on the “reliure de présent”, designed by Gravelot, for the Fermiers Généraux edition of La Fontaine’s Contes et Nouvelles, bound by Derome le jeune (see De Ricci, Schiff Collection I, pp. 72/3, pl. 35. Variants of the Tasso “reliure de présent” are known, notably with the date at the foot of spine or a rosette.
Gravelot’s illustrations make this perhaps the finest French edition of this epic poem. Gordon Ray descibes it as a “handsome and delightful book” and feels that the plates tell Tasso’s story with fidelity and discrimination, but, “it is in the tailpieces that Gravelot triumphs”.
Provenance: a gift inscription of Revd. William Valentine to ‘Herbert Coleridge’, ‘in memory of the affectionate friendship so long lasting between him, his son William’ dated April 21 1857. Presented to Herbert Coleridge (1830-1861), English philologist and grandson of the poet Samuel Taylor, by the father of William Christopher Valentine (d.1866), a friend and fellow early contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary, of which Herbert was the first editor.
Cohen-de Ricci 974/5 “très belle édition”. Ray, no. 22A.
