TASSO Torquato Goffredo, Overo Gierusalemme liberata, poema heroico nel quale sono state aggiunte milte stanze levate, con le varie lettioni; & postivi gli argomenti, & allegorie a ciascun canto d’incerto auttore. Con l’aggiunta de’ Cinque Canti desl S. Camillo Camilli.

BM, Italian, 661 ; Brunet, V, 665-666 (‘variantes inédites’) ; Balsamo, Les Reliures d’un Italien de la cour d’Henri IV ; see OHR, 1860, 3 (unidentified arms). This edition not in Adams.

First edition to contain unpublished variants of Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata with additions by Camillo Camilli printed by Altobello Salicato (the latter printed editions in 1585, 1589, 1590, and 1592) bound for Bartolomeo Cenami.

Since the 15th century, the Cenami family had maintained ties with France that were far closer than those of an embassy. This relationship reached its peak at the end of the 16th century. Together with his brother Rodolphe, Lord of La Barre and Le Pin, Bartholoméo Cenami (1556–1611) settled in Paris in 1578. A creditor of Henry III to the tune of 80,000 livres, he became one of Henry IV’s principal financiers. As an adviser and secretary to the king, and appointed Keeper of the Crown Jewels, he was tasked in 1595 with selling the offices of the provincial treasurers… A financier of the highest calibre, nicknamed ‘Lord, Baron, Count, Marquis of a million gold pieces’, Bartholoméo Cenami—whose sons pursued the same profession with less success in the service of Mazarin—was also associated with the writers of his time: Belando, the Italian entertainer in the Franco-Italian milieu of Henry III’s court, celebrated him as a patron; Malherbe, in the summer of 1609, passed on Peiresc’s letters to him. Montaigne himself received tokens of friendship from his family

“All of the Cenami bindings have a foliate center- and corner-pieces of a type associated with a Parisian binding atelier established by Nicolas Ève (d. ca 1582), royal binder to Henri III, and his son Clovis, royal binder to Henri IV” (Bibliotheca Brokeriana).

This binding is listed as number 17 (of the 19) in the census by Robin Halwas (Robin Halwas, Paris Bindings for Bartolomeo Cenami) who also gives a detailed provenance.

Well represented in Italian institutional libraires (19 copies), USTC locates only 6 other copies for the rest of the world including one single copy in the United-States (France – Aix : 1 ; Germany – Bremen : 1 ; United Kingdom – Cambridge & London : 2 ; Russia – Saint-Petersburg : 1 ; United-States – Philadelphia : 1).

Brunet mistakenly attributed the arms to Claude-Nicolas Lalore where he mentions the copy as “maroquin citron, Cl.-Nic. Lalaure, 2 liv. 13sh, in 1859”.

Top of spine restored, somewhat stained, endpapers renewed in the 19th century nevertheless a very fine copy.

Provenance : Bartolomeo Cenami (his arms on covers and spine) – Guiglielmo Libri – Thomas & William Boone – J.J. Leighton – Conte Sanminiatelli (book plate) – George Dunn of Woolley Hall Near Maidenhead (book plate, an another on with the motto ‘Ver non semper viret’ ) – Edwin Parsons – Maggs Bros.