L'Orlando innamorato del signor Matteo Maria Boiardo conte di Scandiano, insieme co i tre libri di Nicolo de gli Agostini, nuovamente riformato per Lodovico Domenichi. Con gli argomenti, e le figure di nuovo accomodate al principio di ogni canto [...]

IN CONTEMPORARY GILT VELLUM

2 parts in one volume, 4to (212x154 mm). 244; 176, [4] leaves. Collation: A-Z⁸ AA-GG⁸ HH⁴; AAA-YYY⁸ ZZZ⁴. Oval woodcut portrait of the author within border on both title pages. Every canto opens with a small woodcut vignette (39x65 mm) in frame and with a historiated initial. The overall 93 vignettes are reduced copies of the illustrations mostly used in Giolito's editions of Ariosto's Furioso. The second part contains Nicolò degli Agostini's continuation of Boiardo's poem: Il quarto libro d'Orlando innamorato del signor Matteo Maria Boiardo conte di Scandiano, insieme con i tre libri di Nicolò de gli Agostini. Nicely bound in contemporary (Lyonese?) gilt vellum with overlapping edges, spine with five fake raised bands and a flower-shaped decoration repeated in the compartments, large gilt fleuron within a gilt frame on the panels, gilt edges, original endleaves preserved (back panel slightly darkened, ink stain on the fore-edge, but overall in very good condition). On the front pastedown engraved armorial bookplate of Charles de Baschi Marquis d'Aubais with the manuscript shelfmark “J 167” (repeated also on the title page); on the title page red stamp of the same collection “Bibliotheca Albassiana” and 18^th-century ownership's inscription “Catherine Daumelas”. Charles de Baschi Marquis d'Aubais (1686-1777), historian and genealogist of Umbrian origin and Huguenot faith, assembled during his lifetime an exceptional library of over 40,000 volumes, which he gathered in his Château d'Aubais (Gard) and at his death was partly bought by a Grenoble bookseller and partly destroyed in a fire (cfr. H. Omont, La bibliothèque du Marquis d'Aubais, in: “Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes”, vol. 76,‎ 1915, pp. 471-472; see also P. Falgairolle, Essai sur la bibliophilie du Bas-Languedoc (département du Gard) et leurs ex-libris, Paris, 1908, pp. 1-6). Slightly uniformly browned (more strongly at places), minor marginal staining, but a very good copy ruled in red throughout.

Rare illustrated edition of Boiardo's masterpiece, with Nicolò degli Agostini's continuation, in the famous “rimaneggiamento” (reworking) by Lodovico Domenichi, which was first printed by Girolamo Scotto in 1545 and became the standard text for all subsequent editions. Domenichi's was the second systematic revision of the language and orthography of the poem after that carried out by Berni in 1540 (cf. S. Jossa, All'ombra di Ariosto. LodovicoDomenichi editore dell'Orlando innamorato e del Morgante, in: “Bollettino Storico Piacentino”, XC, 2015, 1, 120-138).

Edit 16, CNCE6621; Index Aureliensis, 121.278; Harris, pp. 188-189, no. 43.

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