ARIOSTO, Lodovico. Orlando furioso di messer Ludovico Ariosto nobile ferrarese nuovamente da lui proprio corretto e daltri canti nuovi ampliato, nuovamente stampato.

Quarto (208 x 123 mm.), 244 leaves, title-page printed in red and black with woodcut portrait of Ariosto (the same used in the edition of 1532) and with an added leaf containing a contemporary manuscript index of the poem. Title-page slightly dust soiled, a few spots, a good copy in XVIII century English calf, panels ruled in blind, gilt spine in compartments with lettering piece, red edges. A good copy.

Very scarce edition of this milestone of Renaissance literature. ‘Edizione molto bella e rarissima' (Guidi, Annali, 25), an elegant quarto in compact double column. The handsome woodcut portrait of Ariosto which graces the titlepage printed in red and black, was borrowed from the definitive 1532 edition, published in Ferrara. It was cut after a drawing by Titian, most likely produced ad vivum as the poet was sitting for him – ‘this woodcut must therefore be regarded as the most authentic likeness' (Gronau, ‘Titian's Ariosto', 197).Ariosto (1474-1533) had died in Ferrara in 1533. As an administrator and diplomat in the service of Ippolito and later Alfonso d'Este, he had been able to devote substantial time to literature, issuing the first 40 cantos of his masterpiece in 1516 and republishing them, with some linguistic revisions, in 1521. The multi-layered narrative of Orlando Furioso follows the history of the war between the Christian paladins and the Saracens, Orlando's madness at the flight of his beloved Angelica, and the love between the Christian Bradamante and the Saracen Ruggero, a subplot, this last, celebrating the d'Este family. With its 46 cantos, this edition contains the third and final version of the poem. It was the last edition to appear before the influence of Lodovico Dolce's Apologia against Ariosto's detractors – first published in Venice in the same year – started a process of literary canonization of Ariosto and his chivalric opus.A superb instance of early 16^th-century Venetian printing.Brunet I, 429; EDIT16 A.2549; Sander I, 97; Panizzi 23-24; Tosi 40; Guidi, Annali, 25. WorldCat locates no copies in the US.

U. Guidi, Annali delle edizioni e delle versioni dell'Orlando Furioso (Bologna, 1861); G. Gronau, ‘Titian's Ariosto', Burlington Magazine, 63 (1933), 194-95.