Tasso, Torquedo

Il Goffredo

Amsterdam [Elzevir] 1652 Overo Gierusalemme Liberata, Poema Heroico Del Signor Torquato Tasso. Con L'allegoria universale del istesso: Et Con gli Argomenti del Signor Horatio Ariosti: Aggiantovi i cinque canti del Camillo Camilli. Additional engraved title. 2 volumes bound as one. 24mo. [112 x 57 x 32 mm]. 436pp; 239, [1], 186, [2]blank pp. Early nineteenth century binding by Charles Lewis (signed with a blind pallet at the foot of the front paste-down) of straight-grained citron goatskin, the covers with a blind fillet border and a panel with curved corners. The spine divided into six panels, lettered in gilt in the second and third panels, the others tooled in blind with a profusion of small ornaments, the edges of the boards hatched in gilt at the corners, the turn-ins tooled with a gilt fillet, drab endleaves, gilt edges. Willems 1673. Though the printer is not named these two volumes are generally accepted to be from the Elzevirs' press, as credited by the binder on the spine. There is a hint of browning in the margins and a few spot, and the citron goatskin has the odd trivial blemish, but it is a very good copy. Charles Lewis was born in London in 1786, the son of a Hanoverian immigrant, Johann Ludwig. He was apprenticed to Henry Walther at the age of fourteen, and obtained his freedom in 1807. He set up a shop in Scotland Yard, was at 4 Salisbury Steet, the Strand at some point, and also at Denmark Court, the Strand, and in 1817 he opened in Duke Street, St. James's. By 1823 he was employing 21 journeymen, and he was patronized by all the great collectors of the day. He was William Beckford's favourite binder, as spelt out in a letter to the bookseller George Clarke written in 1831: "Lewis was, and is, and I hope will continue to be, the first artist in this line that Europe can boast of. His works alone<n> are worthy to range in the tower of Landsdowne [on the hill above Bath where Beckford kept a small collection of his finest books] with the Padeloup, de Soeil, de Rome &c &c". In 1833 Beckford was calling him "the true Angel of binding", while he denounced others as "beasts". Lewis died in 1836, and for the next five years the business was managed by Francis Bedford. Bookplate of Cecil Thompson and label of Austin Smith.