ars libri ltd.
rare and scholarly books
on the fine arts
ars libri ltd.
rare and scholarly books
on the fine arts
Early Art Literature Exhibited at the International Fine Art Fair
21
LE ROY [JULIEN-DAVID
Les ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grèce. Considérés du côté de l’histoire et du côté de l’architecture. Seconde édition corrigée et augmentée. 2 vols. in 1. xxiv, 54, xx, 54pp., 61 copper-engraved plates after Le Roy, principally by Le Bas, but also by Patte and Neufforge. Lrg. folio. Nineteenth-century marbled boards, 1/4 calf (rubbed, hinges cracked). Second edition; first published Paris, 1758. An early and very influential work on classical architecture, with sensitive picturesque compositions of the major monuments of Athens and elsewhere. Le Roy (1724? - 1803), successor to Blondel as professor of architecture, and a teacher of Durand, was one of the foremost exponents of Greek taste. “Le Roy’s ‘Ruines,’ though it does not provide a comprehensive theory and appears to waver between the genres of the treatise on aesthetics, the voyage pittoresque, and the archaeological publication, breaks new ground in providing a synthesis of archaeological findings with a body of architectural theory developed and expanded from the important controversy of Claude Perrault and François Blondel. It also includes material based on new rational and historical attitudes which were being developed by Jacques-François Blondel and would find their most extreme statement in the work of Claude Nicolas Ledoux and Étienne-Louis Boullée. Perhaps the most important, Le Roy’s treatise provides the theoretical framework and many of the models for French neoclassical architecture” (Dora Wiebenson, in Millard). This second edition is extensively revised and restructured from the first, incorporating new research on ancient theatres and remarks on James Stuart and Nicholas Revett’s ‘Antiquities of Athens,’ while ignoring (as Wiebenson points out) Piranesi’s attack on his work. Among the new material included in the 1770 edition is a plate on the evolution of temple design, showing in three parallel lines, the development from the primtive hut to Solomon’s Temple and to the Temple of the Sun in Baalbek, and from the catacombs to St. Peter’s--a model which served as a basis for the typologies in Durand’s “Recueil.” Somewhat dusty, occasional creasing of the plates (one plate with clean tear in margin). .
Paris (Louis-François Delatour), 1770. $5,500.00
Schlosser p. 569; Cicognara 4185; Fossati Bellani 2101; Lichtenthal p. 5
22
((LIECHTENSTEIN COLLECTION) FANTI, VINCENZO.
. Descrizzione completa di tutto ciò che trovarsi nella galleria di pittura e scultura di Sua Altezza Giuseppe Wenceslao del S.R.I. Principe Regnante della casa di Lichtenstein.... Dove chiara apparisce tanto la spiegazione de’ pensieri di tutti gli autori, quanto il pregio delle storie, e delle favole che ne’ quadri si trovano espresse unitamente al compendio delle vite degl’istessi pittori. (6), 107, (1), 144, (16)pp. 6 fine engraved decorations by Schmutzer after Fanti (1 full-page frontispiece to Part II, and 5 culs-de-lampe). 4to. Very fine German (?) contemporary russet leather, heavily gilt at spine (slightly chafed at head and foot). A.e.g. First edition; a second edition, in French, was issued by the same publisher in 1780. Part II of the work is a compendium of biographical notices of the artists represented in the collection; this is sometimes encountered as a separate work, which is probably a later issue of the original sheets by the publishers, without change in date. Fanti, a portrait painte r, succeeded his father Ercole Gaetano Fanti, as keeper of the Liechtenstein gallery. The work is finely printed, with exceedingly fine engraved decorations. A superb copy, with an eighteenth-century engraved armorial ex-libris, and the book plate of Theodor von Karajan.
Vienna (Giovanni Tommaso de Trattnern), 1767. $4,000.00
Schlosser p. 497; Cicognara 3389; cf. Borroni II.567 (citing 1780 edn.)
23
MACMICHAEL, WILLIAM.
Journey from Moscow to Constantinople, in the Years 1817, 1818. vi, (2), 272pp., 6 aquatint plates by I. Clark after MacMichael. Lrg. 4to. Contemporary calf gilt (hinges renewed, preserving original backstrip). A.e.g. “First edition; a second edition appeared in 1820. A German translation was produced in 1819. MacMichael was elected a travelling fellow in 1811. He made several journeys through Russia, Turkey, the Danubian Principalities, and Palestine, in 1812, 1814, and 1817. The plates, after drawings by MacMichael, illustrate views in Russia and Moldavia. Chapter IV (forming approximately 1/4 of the book) contains Thomas Legh’s narrative of his journey to Syria. Legh had accompanied MacMichael to Constantinople and then continued on to the Holy Land and Syria. He explored Petra in company with Irby and Mangles” (Blackmer). Intermittent foxing of plates. A handsomely bound copy.
London (John Murray), 1819. $950.00
Blackmer 1054; Abbey 20; Weber 79; Tobler p. 146
24
MAFFEI, SCIPIONE.
Museum veronense, hoc est antiquarum inscriptionum atque anaglyphorum collectio.... (18), xii, dxix, (1)pp. Frontispiece and 33 engraved plates in text (2 folding), nearly all by by Francesco Zucchi, primarily after designs by Cignaroli; 2 by Fessard after Charles Natoire. Hundreds of illus. and figs., partly wood-engraved. Folio. Contemporary calf, gilt at spine (quite rubbed, cracks at hinges). The erudite antiquarian Scipione Maffei, author of ‘Verona Illustrata’ (1731-1732) corresponded with the most important scholars of his time on archaeological and paleographical matters, and established a lapidary museum of antique sculpture and stone inscriptions in many languages, on which this work is based. An elaborate compendium of antique inscriptions and illustrations of celebrated architectural monuments, vases, cameos, statuary, bas-reliefs, coins etc., it is chiefly engraved by the Venetian Franceso Zucchi, who had worked for Frederick-Augustus I, King of Saxony, before his collaboration with Maffei. Internally a fresh, crisp copy, with the fine English rococo ex-libris of Thomas Brand, to whom the English collector and antiquary Thomas Hollis bequeathed most of his property (including a great collection of paintings by Canaletto). Brand later took the name Brand Hollis, in honor of his friend.
Verona (Typis Seminarii), 1749. $2,000.00
Borroni II.2391; Cicognara 3123; Schlosser p. 567; Lozzi II.469; Brunet III.1964; Graesse IV.637; Murray III.236; Grove Dictionary of Art: “Scipione Maffei” (Franco Bernabei)
25
(MANET) Zola, Emile
Ed. Manet. Étude biographique et critique, accompagnée d’un portrait d’Ed. Manet par Bracquemond et d’une eau-forte d’Ed. Manet d’après Olympia. 48pp. 2 original etchings hors texte: one by Manet ("Olympia") and one by Bracquemond (portrait of Manet). Sm. 4to. Orig. printed wraps. (neatly removed from a binding). "This is the pamphlet that was published for Manet and Zola by Dentu on the occasion of Manet’s major one-man exhibition in May 1867. It consists of a re-edition of Zola’s January 1 article in the ‘Revue du XIXe Siècle,’ a frontispiece portrait of Manet etched by Bracquemond, and Manet’s little etching after his painting ‘Olympia’ opposite Zola’s famous analysis of the painting. Zola had suggested the idea of putting the brochure on sale at Manet’s exhibition, held in a pavilion built at the artist’s expense off the avenue de l’Alma.... Printed in an edition of 600 impressions for this pamphlet, this reproduction of the painting Zola considered the artist’s ‘chef-d’oeuvre’ is a proof of their frie ndship and their joint efforts for the success of Manet’s exhibition. The price and the number sold are unknown, but it is likely that the illustrated pamphlet was appreciated only by the ‘devotees and people of refined taste’ referred to in Babou’s review” (Juliet Wilson Bareau, in the Metropolitan Museum catalogue). Intermittent light foxing, not affecting the prints; a clean and crisp example.
Paris (E. Dentu), 1867. $4,500.00
Moreau-Nelaton 17; Guérin 39; Harris 53; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Manet, 1832-1883 (1983), cat no. 69 (illus. 69 and figs. a-b).
26
MAROLOIS, SAMUEL.
Opera mathematica, ou oeuvres mathematiques traictans de geometrie, perspective, architecture, et fortification. De nouveau reveüe, augmentée, et corrigée par Albert Girard. (2), 51, (1)pp.; (2), 50pp.; (2), 15, (1); (2), 19-24pp.; (40)pp.; (2), 39, (1)pp., 40pp. 271 double-page engraved plates hors texte, in various sequences. Stout folio. Contemporary calf gilt at spine; raised bands. This collection was originally published by Hondius in The Hague in 1614; numerous editions of it were issued over the following half-century, of which this is probably the ninth (with separate title-pages dated 1647, except for the final part, which is dated 1644). Organized in five sections, on geometry, optics, perspective, architecture, and fortifications, it includes scenographic plates by Jan Vredeman de Vries dating back to 1604. Copies vary widely in composition and are often found incomplete (as, for example, the Millard copy at the National Gallery, Washington). Hairline split in surface of front hinge, small hole in surface of back cover.
Amsterdam (Jan Jansen), 1662. $7,500.00
Millard Northern European 65; cf. Fowler 191; Berlin 4707; Hollstein (Dutch) 48: 518-591; New Hollstein: Hendrick Hondius, 316-362; Mielke 31 (13);
27
MARRINI, ORAZIO.
Serie di ritratti di celebri pittori dipinti di propria mano. In seguito a quella già pubblicata del Museo Fiorentino esistente appresso l’abate Antonio Pazzi. Con brevi notizie intorno a medesimi. (Serie di Ritratti Originali d’Eccellenti Pittori. Volume I, Parte I.) (2), iv, lviiii pp., 25 engraved plates by Antonio Pazzi after artists’ self-portraits. Title-page vignette and cul-de-lampe after Campiglia, lettrines (Pazzi). Folio. Fine contemporary full vellum over boards, gilt. This is the first of two supplement volumes constituting the final section of the “Museum Florentinum” published by Antonio Francesco Gori and others between 1731 and 1766, in a total of 12 folio volumes. Among the artists’ self-portraits in this part are those of Perino del Vaga, Cavaliere d’Arpino, Lionello Spada, Bronzino, Matteo Rosselli, Furini, Rosa, and Luca Giordano. A handsome copy.
Firenze (Stamperia Moückiana), 1764. $7,500.00
Cicognara 3417; Schlosser p. 588; Brunet II.1670; Graesse III.120
28
MITELLI, AGOSTINO
All’Ill. Sig. Francesco Maria Zambeccari come a suo singolar.mo Padrone Agostino Mitelli D.D.D. 24 unnumbered etched plates, loose as issued, printed on buff-colored paper (watermarked with a paschal lamb in a circle surmounted by the initial A). 250 x 170 mm. (ca. 9 7/8 x 6 5/8 inches). Sm. 4to. Portfolio (modern gilt boards, 1/4 red morocco). This untitled suite of exuberant, often fantastical, decorative cartouches and other ornaments is one of four sets of prints by Agostino Mitelli (1606-1660), the renowned Bolognese quadratura painter, father of Giuseppe Maria Mitelli. Dated 1636, dedicated to Count Zambeccari,and printed and/or published by Agostino Parisini, it is known in several editions or issues. In one, the title-page was reworked with the “inscription Rousel exc.”; in another , with the name of Giovan Batista Paganelli, D.D. and a new dedication to Francesco Bandini. In the present copy, as in the set in the Victoria and Albert, one plate was reworked as a title-page in honor of the marriage of the Duke Paolo Spinola to the Princes Anna Colonna, and bears the date Perugia 1653; the arms of the two families are engraved on the tilted cartouches at top. The title-page also carries the credit, in the architrave below the dedication, “Gio. Jacomo Rossi formis Romae alla Pace, all insegna di Parigi.” The watermark is not in Briquet. Intermittent foxing and occasional light soiling; one plate with a clean tear at one corner, with old mend; a few light touches in pencil; nice impressions.
Bologna (Ag.o Parisini For.), 1636. $3,750.00
Berlin 562; Guilmard p. 314 no. 26; Los Angeles County Museum of Art: Drawings from the Kunstbibliothek Berlin (1965), p. 76
29
NORDEN, FREDERICK LEWIS.
Voyage d’Égypte et de Nubie. Ouvrage enrichi de cartes & de figures dessinées sur les lieux, par l’auteur même. 2 vols. I: (40), 288pp. Frontis. portrait (proof before letters) and grandly elaborate allegorical frontis. by Tuscher; fine engraved archaeological and decorative culs-de-lampe (by Tuscher, Preisler, and Cramer) and lettrines throughout. II: 159 numbered and 5 unnumbered engraved plates (on 162 leaves). Late eighteenth-century heavy boards, 3/4 calf, spines gilt in compartments (light rubbing and scuffing). A large paper copy, with the portrait in proof before letters. “Norden was a captain in the Danish navy and had studied drawing and engraving as part of his duties. He had spent nearly three years in Italy studying art when Christian VI of Denmark ordered him to go to Egypt in 1737 on an exploratory mission where he made drawings on the spot. He spent about a year in Egypt and was the first European to penetrate as far as Derr in Nubia and to publish descriptions of any Nubian temples. This i mportant work was the earliest attempt at an elaborate description of Egypt, and its plates are the most significant previous to those of Denon” (Blackmer, describing the first English edition of 1757). One plate with lettering strip laid down in the margin. A superb copy, handsomely bound and very fresh. Ex-libris Graf Veltheim, with his collector’s mark.
Copenhague (La Maison Royale des Orphelins), 1755. $18,500.00
Blackmer 1211 (for the English edition, 1757).; Hilmy II.74; Brunet IV.101
30
(PIAZZETTA, GIOVANNI BATTISTA).
Nouveau livre du dessein qui contient XXV figures dessinée par le célèbre Jean Baptista Piazzeta [sic]. 24 engraved plates (through-numbered A1-8, B1-8, C1-8, including title-page). Sm. 4to. Contemporary heavy wraps., stitched as issued. This extremely rare book contains three unsigned suites of engravings after academies by Piazzetta, all of male figures, including one of Bacchus. It was undoubtedly published for the use of art students, and may in fact have been engraved by one. While in fine condition, this copy bears a few suggestive small smudges in red and green paint, traces of the studio. The title-page, showing an elegantly dressed woman painting at an easel beneath putti, is a charmingly naive invention. Though stated to contain 25 plates, this copy, with its three signatures of 8 plates each, would appear to be complete with 24. A little light foxing.
N.p., n.d. $2,000.00
Venezia (Comune di): Giambattista Piazzetta, suo tempo, la sua scuola (1983), no. 120 (entry by Filippo Pedrocco).
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