This edition of Tasso's epic poem is widely regarded to be among the finest books printed in eighteenth century Venice. Dedicated to the Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, the volume incorporates generous typesetting with over sixty illustrations by Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, etched by a number of printmakers including Felice Polanzani, Martin Schedl and Antonio Baratta. Each of the twenty cantos opens with a full page illustration with a scene from the poem. The 'argomento' is surrounded by a decorative cartouche, and the text of the poem uses a decorative initial designed and etched by Polanzani. Each canto ends with a full-page tailpiece.
Piazzetta's illustrations often bear little relation to the medieval content of the poem, instead drawing on contemporary French rococo sources, showing shepherds and shepherdesses in pastoral settings. The opening plate is an allegory in praise of Tasso, who appears in a portrait medallion surrounded by Apollo and the nine muses. The final plate is a double portrait of Albrizzi and Piazzetta. A tailpiece advertises the price of the volume, eight zecchini.

Piazzetta enjoyed a long friendship with the publisher Giambattista Albrizzi. The illustrations were in preparation as early as 1740, when Johann Caspar Goethe saw them during a visit to Venice and was 'amazed with wonder and admiration'. These designs are now in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Biblioteca Reale, Turin; and the Hermitage Museum, St Petersberg. Albrizzi issued a prospectus for the volume accompanied by a list of 73 subscribers, including Joseph Smith, Marshal Schulenberg, the Comte de Caylus and Pierre-Jean Mariette. By the time it was published in 1745, 333 copies had been sold by subscription.

Binding information

Bound in red calf, with black, green, white and yellow onlays, in an architectural Rococo style by Andreas Linde for George III as Prince of Wales (or George II as king? This seems more likely when looking at doublures). With tooling in architectural style featuring three columns, and decoration built up with many small tools, including: George and the dragon, vase of flowers, flaming torches, shells, cherubs and angels, crowns, palmettes, volutes, cornucopia, ostrich plumes, birds, and various foliate tools, within a panel border roll frame of filigree stems with crowns and Prince of Wales badges. Spine divided into seven compartments, with lettering to second, others tooled with black onlays and foliate design. Book has been rebound and rebacked with new spine, old covers and spine pasted over.

Doublures are wonderful: stained vellum with gold tooling over, of the royal Hanoverian coat of arms with supporters, over architectural column scene wuth tooling of suns, roses, vase, palmette, various birds, vases of flowers, various foliate tools, flaming torches, heads and faces, all within panel border of a crown to top, various birds, angels and cherubs, heads and faces, foliate stems, suns, thistles, palmettes, lions and cornucopias, with a palmette and foliate roll tool border to edges.