A very famous edition, a masterpiece of eighteenth-century Venetian printing, and more generally one of the main Italian illustrated books of the eighteenth century.
Commenting on this publication, Albrizzi said: “You will lack nothing, neither the text, nor the typefaces, nor the selected paper; but my dearest wish is that my edition stand out from the others for the perfection of its sixty illustrations, by the celebrated painter Piazzetta, reproduced in copperplate by the most skilled engravers. This edition will satisfy not only poets, but also painters and sculptors; and I am so proud of it that I believe a work so richly illustrated and so tastefully illustrated will never appear.” Piazzetta's illustrations often have little relevance to the content of the poem, drawing instead on contemporary French Rococo sources, showing shepherds and shepherdesses in pastoral settings.


Brunet V, 666; Cohen & De Ricci, 978. George Knox, Piazzetta. A tercentenary exhibition of drawings, prints, and books (Washington, 1983), p. 168. Graesse VI/2, 33: “A magnificent edition in terms of impression and paper"; La ragione e l'arte. Torquato Tasso e la Repubblica Veneta , Venice, Il Cardo 1998, p. 206-208 ; G. Morazzoni, Il libro illustrato veneziano del Settecento , Milan, Hoepli 1943, p. 256: «it is not without reason considered the most beautiful Venetian book [...] GB Piazzetta has fulfilled the publisher's wishes as his equal, surpassing the already beautiful edition in brio and felicitous inventions. of Bossuet, drawing 70 compositions and displaying a pleasantness that makes us go from wonder to wonder [...] is an edition that well characterizes an era, and well deserves all the admiration that still surrounds it today»; GB Piazzetta: drawings, engravings, manuscript books, Vicenza, Neri Pozza 1983, p. 70-71.