Francesco Zucchi after Giambattista Tiepolo, illustration to Book X, engraving. Paolo Rolli (1687–1765), translator Il paradiso perduto: poema inglese di Giovanni
Gian Alberto Tumermani, one of Verona’s leading printers, published this beautifully illustrated edition of Paolo Rolli’s Italian verse translation of Paradise Lost in 1742. Tumermani’s expert workmanship is evident in the text’s elegant columns of italics divided by an ornamental border. The illustrations consist of a frontispiece and head- and tail-pieces for each book engraved by Francesco Zucchi (1695–1764) and designed by artists including Zignaroli, Piazetta, and Bigeri. Perhaps the most extraordinary engraving is the one designed by Giambattista Tiepolo for Book X, which depicts the release of Death into the world following the Fall. The figure of Death, robed and masked as for Carnival, is seated on a tomb as he thrusts himself upon a naked Eve, who is entwined all round by the Serpent.