(Venetia: Vencenzo Valgrifi, 1603).

RARE AND EARLY ILLUSTRATED PRINTING OF ONE OF THE FOUR CORNERSTONES OF ITALIAN LITERATURE. Ariosto s great cantos inspired by the crusades are considered his crowning achievement. Though first published in 1516 Ariosto considered this edition incomplete and imperfect. He continued to work on correcting and enlarging it throughout the remainder of his life thus the first  complete ORLANDO FURIOSO was not produced till 1532, the year prior to the author s death by consumption.
The extraordinary merits of this work cast into oblivion the numberless romantic poetry which inundated Italy during this period. This flawless work powerful, elegant and cultivated. In description and narrative he excites the reader s deepest feelings and displays a vivacity of fancy with which no other poet can vie.
 The ORLANDO blocks were cut for Valgrisi s first quarto edition of 1556 and follow Niccolo Zoppino s idea of providing one illustration to each canto but going far beyond the Zoppino blocks in skill of design and cutting. They are the first full-page illustrations for Ariosto. They were placed in the instructive tradition of the Marcolini Dante, the illustration is mentioned on the title-page and at the beginning of Ruscelli s 1556 dedication to Alfonso d Este, Duke of Ferrara. Ruscelli explains to the reader the application of the rules of perspective to the multiple scenes in these cuts. The upper part of the block often becomes a map, offering, as Philip Hofer notes, a tour of the canto by hippogryph. Valgrisi s artist often varied from Giolito s in his choice of the principal scene for illustration and relegated the Giolito subjects to his background. Valgrisi s blocks are printed within borders with figures and grotesques. He was able to use the same blocks without borders in an octavo of 1556 for the popular market. There are two different border designs for the illustrations and two smaller cherub borders for the  argomento to each canto.. Item #18663

A very early printing of the complete and corrected ORLANDO FURIOSO, also with the Life of Ariosto by Battista Pigna. Letters, tables and scholarly critical works by Ruscelli and others. Magnificently illustrated with 51 full-page woodcut engravings within ornate borders, using the blocks from the first Valgrisi quarto edition of 1556 (46 in the ORLANDO, 5 additional in the appended  Cinque Canti ), also with engraved architectural titlepage, imprint set in type in a cartouche in the lower part of the border, type ornament with the title, medallion portrait of Ariosto from the Giolito portrait of 1542 from the profile by Titian, devices of Ariosto and Valgrisi s serpent device, half titles and beautifully engraved decorated large head and tail pieces and large historiated and arabesqe capital initials, printed in double column, Italic. 4to, full antique Italian vellum over stiff boards, spine with terra-cotta morocco label lettered and decorated in gilt. *8, A - Z8; Aa - Vv8; ie [xvi], 654, [32]. A very handsome copy in proper period binding. The paper just likely mellowed and toned by time, very occasionally, headlines slightly shaved, first gathering cropped a bit, the vellum very well preserved, sturdy and handsome.