Beschreibung:

BOIARDO, Count Matteo Maria (1434-1494) and Ludovico ARIOSTO (1474-1533). Orlando innamorato [...] Orlando furioso . Edited by Antonio Panizzi. London: Lowndes and White [ Orlanado innamorato , volumes I-V] and Charles Whittingham [ Orlando furioso , volumes VI-IX] for William Pickering, 1830-1834. 9 volumes, 8° (191 x 114mm). Editorial matter in English, texts in Italian. Half-titles in volumes I-V. Titles with publisher's woodcut dolpin and anchor device [Keynes Pickering device iv]. Woodcut portrait frontispiece and folding letterpress genealogical table. (Occasional light spotting.) Contemporary crushed crimson morocco gilt by James Toovey, the covers with triple gilt fillet borders, the spines gilt in 6 compartments, titled in 2 and dated at the foot, the other compartments decorated with fleurons surrounded by foliate and star tools, roll-tooled gilt turn-ins, gilt edges. Provenance : 'William de Hordey Feb 1858' (inscription on front free endpaper of volume I). A HANDSOMELY-BOUND SET, IN A BINDING PROBABLY EXECUTED FOR WILLIAM PICKERING'S SON AND SUCCESSOR, OF A WORK CONSIDERED 'EXCEEDINGLY ATTRACTIVE' BY KEYNES, and edited by Antonio Panizzi, the celebrated librarian and designer of the British Library's round reading room. Panizzi's edition of Boiardo and Ariosto is described by Richard Garnett as 'the great literary achievement of his life' ( DNB XV, p.179), and, as might be expected, includes extensive bibliographies of the two writers on volumes VI, pp.373-391 and VII, pp.1-79, in addition to the comprehensive introductions and biographies. At the time of William Pickering's death in 1854, his son Basil Montagu Pickering was working for James Toovey, and in 1858, with Toovey's assistance, he established himself as a bookseller. The presentation inscription in the present set (dated '1858'), suggests that the binding was executed by Toovey for Pickering. Keynes Pickering p.50 (marked '*', indicating 'books which seemed to the compiler to have special merits'). (9)