La Spositione di M. Simon Fornarida Rheggio Sopra L'Orlando Furioso di M. Ludovico Ariosto. Fiorenza: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1549-1550.
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A lovely post-incunable Florentine edition of Orlando Furioso, and quite an early one, following the first edition of 1516, though the first complete edition appeared in 1532, and so this edition here truly is very early indeed.
Orlando Furioso is "one of the most influential works in the whole of European literature" (Reynolds). It was notably a major influence on Spenser's Faerie Queene and an important source for Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. It's alluded to in Don Quixote as well as Fontaine's Contes.
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Size: 100 x 151 mm (approx.)
*77 mm thickness
Condition:
[(3), A-Z8, Aa-Zz8, Aaa-Ddd8, a-y8, z6, (2)]
Full calf binding, rubbed with some loss to the leather, dry. Both boards are securely attached, though with joints cracked & exposed. Stands without shelf lean, binding secure. No attached bookplates. Pencil inscriptions to ffep recto from a prior book dealer. This copy previously sold for £500 (unknown when). Collated as complete through both parts. Complete with the 3D8 blank which is often lacking, as well as a7-8 which are both blanks. It's possible that the final two blanks are supposed to be z7-8 in the collation, but the text itself ends with z6 which has the colophon for the second part on the verso. Generally very clean throughout the text, minor sporadic spotting, else generally very good.
[Edit16 CNCE 19529].
