Tasso (Torquato) La Gerusalemme liberata, first edition, first issue (with names and arms of dedicatee to foot of each plate), title printed in red and black and with engraved vignette, engraved frontispiece incorporating author's portrait and portrait of the dedicatee (a young Empress Maria Theresa of Austria) by Felix Polanzani after Giambatista Piazzetta, 20 engraved plates with borders and dedications at foot, elaborate head- and tail-pieces, some full-page, including a full-page double portrait of Piazzetta and Albrizzi at end, and engraved initials opening the dedication, preface, and each canto, all after Piazzetta by Martin Schedl, lacking half-title, frontispiece neatly repaired at outer edge, plate for 'Canto Quarto' with small marginal repaired tear, occasional spotting or light foxing (mostly marginal), a few small stains, modern red half morocco, spine in compartments and titled and dated in gilt, some staining, rubbed, [Gamba p.285; Morazzoni p.256; Cohen-de Ricci 978], folio (422 x 288mm.), Venice, Giambatista Albrizzi, 1745.

⁂ A masterpiece of 18th century Venetian book production. 'It is apt to consider the most beautiful illustrated book, the Gerusalemme Liberata by Piazzetta. Piazzetta proceeds from miracle to miracle...and transforms vignettes into the first real decorative etchings, which occupy a full-page' (Morazzoni).