[Rarebooks] fa: EDWARD FAIRFAX/TORQUATO TASSO - GODFREY OF BOULOGNE or THE RECOVERIE OF JERUSALEM 1624

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, September 27. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/y27xkyuc

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


[Torquato Tasso;] Edward Fairfax: Godfrey of Boulogne: or The Recouerie [i.e., Recovery] of Ierusalem [i.e., Jerusalem]. Done into English Heroicall verse, by Edward Fairefax Gent. And now the second time Imprinted, and Dedicated to His Highnesse: Together with the life of the said Godfrey. London: Printed by [Eliot’s Court Press for] John Bill, Printer to the Kings most Excellent Maiesty, 1624. Folio (27.5 cm) in full early/period calf, gilt-lettered morocco spine label; [26] + 392 pp.; with a woodcut architectural title-page, woodcut decorations and initials. STC 23699; ESTC S117570.

Edward Fairfax’s translation of Torquato Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata, the first, and arguably best, complete translation of the work. First published in in 1600 when Fairfax was only twenty, he reissued it here with a dedication to the soon-to-be Charles I and with a brief life of Tasso. “This is considered the finest English version of the work, and is an example of free and creative translation which set a high standard for other writers of the time. The quality of the poetry has been compared to that of Spenser. King James declared it his favorite English poem, and Charles I is said to have read it often during his imprisonment” (Kunitz & Haycraft).

Without the frontispiece portrait sometimes called for, but with the equally uncommon "extra" leaf of verse ("The Genius of Godfrey to Prince Charles") present. Binding with rubbing and bumping to the corners; contents with some scattered light spots, staining and browning, most noticeable on the last page of the text, two leaves with the early ink doodles and signature of a (presumably very young) Elizabeth Bingham, additional early signature of an Anne Buller, modern ink notation to the verso of the title-page, else quite clean and sound, firmly bound. Front flyleaf with the ownership signature of “W Mason, 1788,” possibly the poet William Mason (1724-1797).