Orlando Furioso

London: Printed by G.Miller for J. Parker, 1634. HARRINGTON, John. . Orlando Furioso. in English Heroical Verse by Sir John Harrington of Bath Knight. Now thirdly revised and ammended with the Addition of the Author's Epigrams. London: Printed by G.Miller for J. Parker, 1634.

Full Description:

ARIOSTO, Lodovico. HARRINGTON, John, [translator]. Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse by Sir John Harrington of Bath Knight. Now thirdly revised and ammended with the Addition of the Author's Epigrams. London: Printed by G.Miller for J. Parker, 1634.

Third edition of Harington's 1591 translation which was the first English edition and remained the only English translation of many years. This third edition is further expanded by the addition of the "Author's Epigrams." Two works in one small folio in sixes (10 5/8 x 7 1/4 inches; 270 x 185 mm). [16], [1, Ads], [1, plate], 423, [9, table], [1, Title], [1, blank], [43], [1, blank] pp. With engraved title-page for the first work and 46 full-page engravings , included in the pagination accompanying each Canto. Separate title-page for "Epigrams" with an engraved vignette. Epigrams have a separate title but continuous register. Elaborate engraved head and tail pieces and initials.

Contemporary full calf, rebacked to style. Spine with red morocco spine label, lettered in gilt. Spine stamped in gilt. All edges speckled red. Newer endpapers Fore-edge margins are trimmed close, a few times just touching printed marginal notes. Closed tear to bottom margin of S1, barley touching a few letters. T6 with a tear to fore-edge margin, with a bit of loss to marginal note. Some various dampstains and other soiling throughout. Some minor occasional offsetting from plates. Overall a very good copy.

"Lodovico Ariosto represented the sentiments, the passions, and the vices and virtues of 16th-century Italians in his epic poem, L'Orlando Furioso (The Crazy Orlando). This Renaissance classic, based on romances popular at the time, furnished the framework for the chivalric narrative in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. Orlando Furioso is a tale of knights, dames, and courtesies when the Moors invaded France to avenge the death of their king's father. In the story Orlando (Roland), Charlemagne's nephew and most famous knight, falls madly in love with Angelica, who is also pursued by many other Christian and Moorish knights. She flees these attentions only to bestow her love in the end on a poor man without rank. Ariosto's view of life, reflected throughout the poem, is one of ironic disillusionment—love is madness. John Harington (1561-1612) was a witty courtier and godson of Queen Elizabeth. (He is also the acknowledged inventor of the flush toilet.) According to lore, Harington first translated the racy tale of Jocundo from Canto XXVIII and circulated it among the ladies of the Court. The Queen feigned to be shocked by some passages and reprimanded her godson for endangering the morals of her maids of honor. Elizabeth sentenced Harington to stay away from the Court until he had translated the whole of Ariosto's poem. Harington completed the translation by 1591. Harington's Orlando Furioso is one of the major translations of the age, freely executed but faithful to the spirit and style of the original. At 33,000 lines in length and nearly 6,000 lines shorter than the original, the translation is seldom exactly what Ariosto wrote, shorter in places and expanded elsewhere—with moral truisms added. Each of the forty-six cantos of the poem is preceded by a full-page illustration (including the especially risqué one for Canto XXVIII). All are copied strictly or with slight variation from the plates used by Girolamo Porro in a Venice edition printed in 1584. The engravings are unsigned, purportedly the work of several engravers, including possibly Jodocus Hondius. (Clark Library, UCLA Chrzanowski 1607a : Regarding the 1607 Second edition).

STC 748. Pforzheimer 447.

HBS 69070.

$3,000.