I show the binding above larger than most because this is a huge binding and this elaborate dentelle more work than usual. This binding covers the 1745 publication of Torquato Tasso's La Gerusalemme liberata. printed in Venice by Giambatista Albrizzi in1745. Torquato Tasso, who was born on 11 March 1544 and died 25 April 1595 was an Italian poet of the 16th century, best known for his poem Gerusalemme liberata (Jerusalem Delivered, 1581), in which he depicts a highly imaginative version of the combats between Christians and Muslims at the end of the First Crusade, during the Siege of Jerusalem. He suffered from mental illness and died a few days before he was due to be crowned as the king of poets by the Pope. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Tasso remained one of the most widely read poets in Europe.
We do not know when Louis Douceur made this binding for Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (29 December 1721 15 April 1764), commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, who was a member of the French court and the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to 1751. However the appearance of certain imprints suggests that it was bound not long after the printing in 1745 (click here to see early imprints on Douceur bindings for Madame de Pompadour)
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