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Orlando furioso

Author: Lodovico Ariosto (Italian, 1474–1533)
Engraved by: Etienne Ficquet (French, 1719–1794)
Engraved by: Francesco Bartolozzi (Italian, worked in Italy, England, and Portugal, 1728–1815)
Engraved by: Nicolas Delaunay (French, 1739–1792)
Engraved by: Joseph de Longueil (French, 1730–1792)
Engraved by: Emmanuel Jean Nepomucène de Ghendt (Flemish, worked in France, 1738–1815)
Engraved by: Benoît-Louis Prévost (French, about 1735–about 1804)
Engraved by: Benoît Louis Henriquez (French, 1732–1806)
Engraved by: Jean Massard (1740–1822)
Engraved by: Jean Baptiste Simonet (French, 1742–1813)
Engraved by: Nicholas Ponce (French, 1746–1831)
Engraved by: Antoine Jean Duclos (French, 1742–1795)
Engraved by: Pietro Antonio Martini (Italian, 1738–1797)
Engraved by: Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune (French, 1741–1814)
Engraved by: Pierre-Philippe Choffard (French, 1730–1809)
Engraved by: Isidore Stanislas Helman (French, 1743–1806)
After: Charles Eisen (French, 1720–1778)
After: Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian (Venetian), about 1488–1576)
After: Giovanni Battista Cipriani (Italian (Florentine), 1727–1785, active in London)
After: Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune (French, 1741–1814)
After: Charles-Nicolas Cochin le fils (French, 1715–1790)
After: Charles Monnet (French, 1732–after 1808)
After: Jean-Baptiste Greuze (French, 1725–1805)
Printer: John Baskerville (English, 1706–1775)
Publisher: Pietro Molini (Italian, active in England, 1730–1806)
1773
Place of Publication: Birmingham, England

Medium/Technique Illustrated book with 47 etching and engravings
Dimensions Overall (vols. 1-2, each): 24.3 x 15.7 x 3.2 cm (9 9/16 x 6 3/16 x 1 1/4 in.)
Credit Line William A. Sargent Collection—Bequest of William A. Sargent
Accession Number37.1347a-d
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsIllustrated books
Birmingham: G. Baskerville, per P. e G. Molini, 1773

Catalogue Raisonné Cohen-de Ricci 95-97; Ray, French Illustrated Book, 64; Gaskell, Baskerville, 48; ESTC (RLIN): T133621
Description(Birmingham: G. Baskerville, per P. e G. Molini, 1773) Octavo, four vols.; [v. 1] 213 leaves, plus 13 plates; [v. 2] 226 ll., 12 pls.; [v. 3] 224 ll., 12 pls.; [v. 4] 230 ll., 11 pls.; contemporary gilt-stamped brown tree calf (rebacked).

Author portrait; illustrations to Ariosto's poem.

Despite the imprint date, the making of this work extended over several years. The plates are dated from 1771 to 1774, and are in the states with lettering in this copy. There were many different issues, including numerous cancel leaves, correcting various errata, although the five lines of errata at the end of v. 4 may indicate a later state of the printed text, according to Harvard online catalogue. That source also indicates that the first two volumes may have been finished by the end of 1772; this could be indicated, too, by the difference in paper between those and the last two vols. in the MFA copy. In vol. 4, p. 329 is misnumbered 229.

The illustrations include an author portrait frontispiece engraved by Ficquet after a drawing by Eisen, itself taken from the Titian portrait. The plates include 14 subjects after Cipriani, 11 after Moreau, and lesser numbers by Eisen, Cochin, Monnet, and Greuze. Drawings by Cochin for four subjects are in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (see Carter Foster, "Charles-Nicolas Cochin the Younger--the Philadelphia Portfolio," Philadelphia Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 90 [1994], pp. 22-23, figs. 25-28). A set of these illustrations (with new borders, and Moreau replacements for Cantos 5 and 12) is bound with the 1775-83 Brunet edition (MFA copy: 37.1348a-d).
ProvenanceAcquired in 1922 by William A. Sargent, Boston (1858-1936), by whom bequeathed to MFA, November 17, 1937.