Figure 125
Pages from Gerusalemme Liberata: Zatta, Venice
From a copy in Harvard College Library (facsimiles), Munich Digitization Center (scan 1, scan 2)
1787
Another fascinating little book, printed by Zatta in 1787, is a two-volume edition of Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata in 16mo—an example of his more intimate style, and much better printed than the Goldoni. It is set in a workmanlike eighteenth century roman face, slightly leaded, with three verses to a page, and each canto begins with a clever little vignette. The presswork, though careless, is respectable for its period. The Tasso appears to have been part of a collection of Opere of Italian poets, and was a sort of decorated Italian “Pickering edition,” to be read in the grotto of an eighteenth century Italian garden.