1858 Rare Victorian Book - Godfrey of Bulloigne or Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso. Illustrated.
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Author: Torquato Tasso. Translated by Edward Fairfax. Illustrated by Corbould.
Title: GODFREY OF BULLOIGNE. Or, Jerusalem Delivered. Translated by Edward Fairfax. Edited by Robert Aris Willmott. Illustrated by Corbould.
Publisher: London, George Routledge and Co, 1858.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 6.5 " X 4.5 ".
Pages: xlviii-445 pages.
Binding: Attractive and very good original blue morocco leather binding with an attractive decorative paneling (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover. All edges glt.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight, and clean, some foxing and staining - as shown).
Illustrations: Complete with the beautiful frontispiece and the seven full-page illustrations by Corbould.
The book: Rare and attractive illustrated edition of the Jerusalem Delivered, also known as The Liberation of Jerusalem (Italian: La Gerusalemme liberata), is an epic poem by the Italian poet Torquato Tasso, first published in 1581, that tells a largely mythified version of the First Crusade in which Christian knights, led by Godfrey of Bouillon, battle Muslims in order to take Jerusalem. Tasso began to work on the poem in the mid-1560s. Originally, it bore the title Il Goffredo. It was completed in April, 1575 and that summer, the poet read his work to Duke Alfonso of Ferrara and Lucrezia, Duchess of Urbino. A pirate edition of 14 cantos from the poem appeared in Venice in 1580. The first complete editions of Gerusalemme liberata were published in Parma and Ferrara in 1581.
The author: Torquato Tasso (11 March 1544 – 25 April 1595) was an Italian poet of the 16th century, known for his 1591 poem Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the Siege of Jerusalem of 1099.