1 ALBERTOLLI, GIOCONDO. Corso elementare di ornamenti architettonici. Ideato e disegnato ad uso de principianti. Engraved title, letterpress leaf of text, and 28 engraved plates (1 folding), by Giacomo Mercoli and Ambrogio Bariolo after Albertolli. Folio. Contemporary marbled boards, 1/4 calf gilt. Giocondo Albertolli (1742-1839), the leading member of the distinguished Swiss-Italian dynasty of artists, architects and teachers, was noted for his refined architectural decorations in stucco, at the Villa Poggio Imperiale outside Florence, at the Palazzo Pitti and the Uffizi, and at the Palazzo Reale in Milano, where he had been brought by Giuseppe Piermarini. His style was based in large part on fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Tuscan stuccowork, and on classical precedents in Pompei and Herculaneum, as well as in Rome and Naples. He held the post of Professor of Design at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera until his retirement in 1812. Discussing the present work, Giuliana Ricci writes (in the Dictionary of Art) "His publications, widely circulated in Italy and Europe, also had a didactic purpose. Containing engravings of his completed works and designs, they laid the foundations for a style based on a mixture of ancient Greek and Roman details with others derived from 16th-century Lombard and Florentine art. In his last volume, published in 1805, the range of motifs is the outcome of endless combinations, governed by the dictates of the architectural form. The book’s teaching method is based on the student copying the designs until perfect before coming to terms with greater difficulties." A few faint touches in pencil (as well as a traced sheet inserted), from an early student; slight loss at blank corner of text leaf; boards somewhat worn at extremities.
Milano (L’Autore), 1805. $3,000.00Cicognara 288; Brunet I.136; Graesse I.54
2 AN ALBUM OF BAROQUE REPRODUCTIVE PRINTS. 75 seventeenth- and eighteenth-century etchings and engravings, mounted on 71 leaves. Folio. Mid-nineteenth-century English marbled boards, 3/4 morocco gilt (rubbed). The album includes, among other contents, Agostino Carracci’s "Saint Francis Consoled by the Musical Angel" after Vanni (cf. Bohlin 204) and his "Ecce Homo" after Correggio (cf. Bohlin 143); Michel Dorigny’s "The Academy of Art," and Cornelis Cort’s "Rest on the Flight to Egypt" after Barocci. There are several partial or nearly complete reproductive series, including Dietrich-Theodor Crüger after Sarto’s Life of the Baptist (17 plates on 15); Pietro Santi Bartoli after Lanfranco (16 plates, including title); and 22 various plates after Vouet by Dorigny, Tortebat, Daret and others. There are also single prints and series by G.B. Mercati, Cornelis Bloemaert, Fr. Aquila and Pietro Testa. Condition of the prints varies greatly, from worn impressions, trimmed and in worn state, to fine impressions with large margins and in fine state. $5,500.00
3 [ALGAROTTI, FRANCESCO]. Saggio sopra la pittura. 184, (2)pp. Engraved title-page vignette. Contemporary speckled wraps. Uncut. First published Bologna, 1762, and duly translated into English (London, 1764), French (Paris, 1769) and German (Kassel, 1769); a number of editions such as this appeared in Italy before the end of the eighteenth century. Count Francesco Algarotti (Venice, 1712-1764) was internationally esteemed as a connoisseur, particularly in Germany, where he was an agent and advisor to Frederick the Great, Augustus III and Count Brühl. A nice copy.
Livorno (Marco Coltellini), 1763. $600.00
Cf., citing various editions: Borroni I.854; Borroni I.854; Schlosser p. 682; Cicognara 7
4 AMMANATI, BARTOLOMEO. Autograph letter, signed, to Giovanni Caccini, Provveditore of Cosimo I de’ Medici in Pisa, Florence, 19 January 1571. 8 lines on the recto of a single sheet, with address panel, contemporary endorsement and pen trials on the verso. Oblong 8vo. 130 x 210 mm. (irregular). Ammanati writes to inform of the dispatch to Pisa of the bronze statue from the labyrinth in the garden of the Medici villa at Castello. Reporting that he has sent the ‘fiura’ of bronze to Pisa, as commanded by Signor Montalvo, he explains that he doesn’t know the ultimate destination of the figure; Caccini was to ask His Highness. Neither does Ammanati know who should pay the transport costs. It is not certain to which statue from the labyrinth at Castello Ammanati refers. It appears, however, that the only bronze completed for the labyrinth was Giambologna’s "Fiorenza," a magnificent Venus symbolizing the city of Florence, which crowns the marble fountain by Tribolo at its center and is thought to be based on Tribolo’s design. If this is indeed the sculpture in question, the present letter may provide evidence to resolve longstanding uncertainty about its date, which has been given as either circa 1560, or 1570-1571, which the document would seem to support. We wonder whether Ammanati’s term "fiura" may possibly be an abbreviated form of "Fiorenza."
Some of Ammanati’s correspondence to Duke Cosimo I has been published in Gaye’s ‘Carteggio,’ but this letter is unpublished, as are others in the substantial group from which it derives, formerly in the Feltrinelli Collection. Slight ink erosion, small tear at upper margin; generally very good.
Firenze, 1571. $3,500.00
5 ARNALDI, ENEA. Idea di un teatro nelle principali sue parti simile a’ teatri antichi, all’uso moderno accomodato. Con due discorsi, l’uno che versa intorno a’ teatri in generale, riguardo solo al coperto della scene esteriore, l’altro intorno al soffito di quella del Teatro Olimpico di Vicenza, opera dell’insigne Andrea Palladio. (4), xxxii, 82, (2), 58, (2)pp., 6 fine folding engraved plates. Wood-engraved culs-de-lampe, lettrines. 4to. Contemporary heavy wraps. Count Arnaldi’s proposal, based on Palladian prototypes but with noteworthy innovations of his own, was originally prompted by the destruction by fire of Bibiena’s Teatro Filarmonico in 1749. He adds a discussion of Palladio’s original plans for the Teatro Olimpico. A few tears to the plates, well mended; two charming early wash drawings (a soldier, a man’s head) on the last blank leaf; a few plates touched with wash; occasional light foxing; a fine copy. Vicenza (Antonio Veronese), 1762 $3,000.00
Berlin 2790; cf. Cico 750 (misstating date); cf. Schlosser p. 568 (misstating date); Brunet 9790
6 BORGHINI, RAFFAELLO. Il riposo. 3 vols. vii, 295, 260, 235pp. Fully engraved title-pages; culs-de-lampe. Sm. 4to. Contemporary mottled calf gilt. The third edition of the work, first published in 1584 and annotated by Bottari in the Florence edition of 1730. "The work is divided into four books, the first two are of a theoretical nature, while the third and fourth contain important information on the artistic and cultural world of Florence. In the ‘Riposo’ Borghini relied for information mainly on Vasari, and he may be considered Vasari’s successor. Although much of the treatise lacks originality, it is useful as a source where it deals with artists contemporaneous with the author, such as those who worked in the studiolo of Francesco I, or Francesco Zuccari or sculptors such as Giambologna, who was also probably a friend of Borghini" (Donatella Pegazzano, in The Dictionary of Art). A handsome set.
Siena (Dai Torchi Pazzini Carli), 1787. $1,500.00
Schlosser p. 373; cf. Arntzen/Rainwater H34
7 CALDERARI, OTTONE. Disegni e scritti di architettura del Co. Ottone Calderari. Edited by A. Diedo, G. Marangoni, A. Rigato, and A, Vivorio. Elogio by Arnaldo Arnaldi I. Tornieri. 2 vols. (4), 42, (2)pp., 47 engraved plates; 30, (8)pp., 43 engraved plates. Lrg. folio. Publisher’s printed heavy blue wraps. Uncut. The Vicenzan architect and theorist Ottone Calderari (1730-1803), prolifically active in the Veneto, designed a number of grand palazzi in Vicenza, as well as villas and churches. Heavily influenced by Bertotti Scamozzi’s publication of Palladio in 1776-1783, he built a career based on the Palladian style (Quatremère de Quincy called him "a rejuvenated Palladio"), while assimilating contemporary ideas on functional planning. The two volumes of this work were published not long after his death, in 1808 and 1815, by Paroni in Vicenza; the sheets were then reissued in new wrappers in Venezia in 1817, by Alvisopoli. A third volume in quarto, containing Calderari’s writings on architecture, was planned but never issued (though a collection of his "Scritture inedite in materia di architettura" was collected by Antonio Magini in 1847). Uncut. Some waterstaining and spotting, predominantly in the second volume; a few marginal mends; wrappers somewhat worn, expertly rebacked.
Vicenza/ Venezia (Tipografia Paroni/ Tipografia Alvisopoli), 1808-1815 [1817]. $8,000.00
The Dictionary of Art: "Ottone Calderari" (unsigned).; Cicognara 457; Brunet I.1470; Graesse II.14
8 CAPRA, ALESSANDRO. La nuova architettura civile, e militare. Divisa in due tomi, in questa nuova impressione diligentemente corretta, ed accresciuta. 2 vols. in 1. (28), 356, (12), 184pp. Most prof. illus. in woodcut (including 7 folding plates hors texte, 44 numbered plates mostly full-page, and two frontispiece portraits). Stout 4to. Contemporary plain heavy wraps. First collected edition of these two treatises, first published in Cremona in 1678 (as "La nuova architettura famigliare") and 1683 ("La nuova architettura militare"). Martha Pollak, in the Millard catalogue, points out that these two Capra’s books on architecture are among the few theoretical treatises on architecture published in Italy in the seventeenth century. For the most part, his are quite practical in nature. "Capra, typically, does not take on aesthetic philosophy, since the beautiful has already been linked to taste... and thus relativized. Capra does not consider architecture as the art of building, but as a science with a strong engineering aspect. In his work, he provides the embryonic theoretical distinction between architecture and building. The singularity of Capra’s works lies in the localized quality of his references and his focus on the technical aspects of architecture; all his precepts are technological." The first work, "La nuova architettura famigliare" is divided into five books, nominally devoted to the orders (including Tuscan and Composite) but actually concerned with estate management, construction costs and materials, the principles of surveying, geometry and measurement, and, most interestingly, with machinery of all kinds, featuring powerful, full-page woodcut diagrams and illustrations of mills, kneading devices, and ingenious designs for air-conditioning systems, portable perpetual fountains, and an odometer. The second work, "La nuova architettura militare," is divided into three books, of which Pollak considers the second, in which Capra compares Italian and Dutch fortifications, an original contribution to the subject, particularly his scheme for an octagonal fortress. One leaf with small clean marginal tear; a fine, bright, unsophisticated copy, with the stamp of the architectural historian Maria Luisa Gatti Perer on the verso of the title-page.
Cremona (Pietro Ricchini), 1717. $4,500.00
Cicognara 462; Cf. (citing first editions of 1678 and 1683): Millard Italian 27-28; Berlin 2752, 3534; Fowler 79-80; Schlosser p. 625; Besterman p. 20; Riccardi I.234-235; Brunet VI.583
9 CARASI, CARLO. Le pubbliche pitture di Piacenza. 158, (6)pp. Handsome engraved title-page vignette. Sm. 4to. Early nineteenth-century boards.
Piacenza (Giuseppe Tedeschi), 1780. $750.00
Schlosser p. 577; Cicognara 4307; Fossati Bellani 2857
10 CELLINI, BENVENUTO. Vita di Benvenuto Cellini orefice e scultore fiorentino, da lui medesimo scritta, nella quale molte curiose particolarità si toccano appartenenti alle arti ed all’istoria del suo tempo, tratta da un’ottimo manoscrito, e dedicata all’eccelenza di Mylord Riccardo Boyle, Conte di Burlington.... xvi, 318pp. Woodcut title page vignette and lettrines; title set in red and black. 4to. Contemporary speckled boards, 1/4 green leather gilt. The famous counterfeit issued by Bartolini in Florence in 1792, of the true first edition, which had been published in Naples by Pietro Martello in 1728. The present issue is distinguishable from the proper first edition in the design of the woodcut mask on the title-page, the number of lines on the first page of the dedication, and the pagination of the index; the paper, too, is different. Cellini’s autobiography is both a major literary text of the Renaissance and one of the crucial art-historical sources of its time; its survival, unpublished, until the early eighteenth century, is in itself remarkable. An attractive copy.
Colonia [vere Firenze] (Pietro Martello [vere Bartolini]), n.d. [1792]. $1,500.00
Cicognara 2232; Brunet I.1725; Graesse II.99; Cf.: Schlosser p. 375f., Gamba 337
11 CHIZZOLA, LUIGI. Le pitture e sculture di Brescia che sono esposte al pubblico. Con un’ appendice di alcune private gallerie. xxiv, 196, pp. Very fine unsigned etched decorations throughout, including allegorical frontispiece, title-page, 4 culs-de-lampe and 2 lettrines, all by the same artist; 1 additional cul-de-lampe by a different hand. Sm. 4to. Contemporary heavy drab paper wraps. Though the work was published by Luigi Chizzola, who also contributed the preface, it is based on the researches of the Brescian sculptor G.B. Carboni (d. 1783), who is often named as its author. The etchings are quite artistic, the culs-de-lampe being rococo compositions reminiscent of Piranesi, incorporating monuments of the city. This copy has occasional intelligent annotations in two contemporary hands. A fine copy, uncut and as issued.
Brescia (Dalle Stampe di Giambatista Bossini), 1760. $1,250.00
Schlosser p. 569; Cicognara 4185; Fossati Bellani 2101; Lichtenthal p. 5
12 (CONTI SALE) PARIS. PALAIS DU TEMPLE. Catalogue d’une riche collection de tableaux des maîtres les plus célèbres des trois écoles; aussi des plus grands maîtres, sous verre & en feuilles, bronzes, marbres, terre cuite du Quesnoi, de Bouchardon, &c., pierres gravées antiques, pendules, montres, & bijoux, & autres objets curieux, qui composent le cabinet de feu Son Altesse Sérenissime Monseigneur le Prince de Conti, prince du sang, & grand prieur de France. Sale, 8 April - 6 June 1777. (2), ii, viii, 417, (3)pp. Fine engraved allegorical half-title by Martini after Moreau. Contemporary boards, 3/4 calf (very finely rebacked and recornered). This copy priced in pen throughout. A little light wear internally; a handsome copy. A highly important sale, "une des ventes les plus importantes du XVIIIe siècle" (Duplessis).
Paris (Muzier père/ Pierre Remy), 1777 . $1,250.00
Lugt 2671; Duplessis 971; Cicognara 4468
13 DIETTERLIN, WENDEL. Architectura von Ausstheilung, Symmetria und Proportion der Fünff Seulen. Und aller darauss volgender Kunst Arbeit, von Fenstern, Caminen, Thürgerichten, Portalen, Bronnen, und Epitaphien. Wie diselben auss allerley Art der Fünff Seullen gr 5 parts in 1. 209ff. Etched portrait, 5 etched titles, and 195 etched plates in text; 1 copperplate-engraved half-page diagram. Sm. folio. Early full leather (renewed at spine and hinges, preserving nearly all of the original backstrip). First published in parts in 1593-1594, and as a collected edition (in several issues, in Latin, German and French) in Nürnberg, 1598. We quote at length from Harry Francis Mallgrave’s remarks about the book in his essay in the Millard catalogue. "One of the most interesting and important architectural works of sixteenth-century northern Europe is the ‘Architectura von Ausstheilung, Symmetria und Proportia der fünff Seulen’ of Dietterlin... [Dietterlin’s] artistic fame and influence was unparalleled in Germany in the first two decades of the seventeenth-century, and in this respect and others, his significance, especially in his dissemination of Renaissance decorative forms in Germany, parallels and even transcends that of Vredeman in the Netherlands.... What makes Dietterlin’s decorative style so unique and important for architecture is twofold: first, the very high artistic quality of the 203 engraved plates; and second, the way in which the painter (as he identifies himself on the title-page) attempts to interpret the Vitruvian and Serlian tradition of classical architecture in a private, lively, and imaginative style that was, as one of his earlier biographers phrased it, ‘almost impressionistic,’ if not a forerunner to the German baroque. Dietterlin, in effect, mediates or filters the tradition of Vitruvius or Serlio through such column books as that of Blum, but even here important distinctions or departures are already in evidence.... Each of the five books is devoted to one order and iconographic theme based on the Vitruvian explanation of its origin. Each book begins with plates relating the order’s basic geometry or proportions, before passing to its decorative appurtenances with a lively if not sometimes nightmarish sensitivity. Terror and dementia are sometimes the impressions evoked by these images, as Dietterlin combines architectonic, human and animal forms with a pre-Piranesian sense of fantasy and humor that is unparalleled within the architectural literature of this time. There is scarcely a distinction in his forms between what is organic or inorganic, as walls, portals and windows breathe with empathetic life. Humanist architecture for Dietterlin is entirely corporeal, moving, and animate.... The technical or artistic execution of the plates also elevates the book above any other northern treatise of the sixteenth century, but this achievement is so self-evident to the reader that it is scarcely worth noting." Consistently foxed in the margins, generally outside the image; one plate with early extension at outer margin, and with a small hole within the etching. This copy with strong impressions of the plates, and complete with the portrait, which is often missing.
Nürnberg (Paulus Fürst), 1655 $7,500.00
Cf. (citing various editions and issues): The Millard J. Millard Architectural Collection, III: Northern European Books (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998) p. 25ff., nos. 28-29; Berlin 1942; Cicognara 49; Schlosser p. 421; Guilmard p. 378; Fairfax Murray Early German 134; Besterman p. 29; Brunet II.706; Graesse II.391; Ornament und Entwurf 50; Kunstbibliothek Berlin: Architektur in Darstellung und Theorie 100; Brown University: Ornament and Architecture 40; Dumbarton Oaks: Fons Sapientiae 11
14 DU CERCEAU, JACQUES ANDROUET. [Praecipua aliquot romanae antiquitatis ruinarum monimenta vivis prospectibus ad veri imitationem affabre designata.] 24 engraved plates, trimmed but nearly all preserving ruled borders (a few plates trimmed fractionally within the border). Average dimensions (slightly irregular): 150 x 185 mm. (5 7/8 x 7 1/8 inches). Mounted in a modern album, on leaves of Dutch handmade paper, the suite is accompanied by a leaf of old laid paper, probably the front flyleaf or inner front cover of an early binding, on which are carefully inscribed five contemporary English signatures (four of these seemingly written by the same hand). Each plate is titled within the image, in various locations at the top. Oblong 4to. Modern full vellum over boards, fillets ruled in blind. This suite of views of Roman antiquities, complete except for the title-page, is a reduced re-engraving by Du Cerceau of a series by the Flemish printmaker Hieronymus Cock, published in Antwerp in 1551 under the same title. Cock’s suite, larger in format (ca. 230 x 325 mm.), was also re-engraved in reverse by Battista Pittoni in Venice in 1561, serving as a model for Veronese in his frescoes at the Villa Maser. The Pittoni series was republished in Venice in 1582 as illustrations in Vincenzo Scamozzi’s "Discorsi sopra l’antichità di Roma."
The subjects of the prints (not including the title) are as follows: Tempio della Pace (2), Colosseum (9), Palace of Septimius Severus, Capitol, Ponte dei Quattro Capi, Palace of the Emperors (4), Baths of Caracalla (2), Baths of Diocletian, and ‘uncertain’ ruins (3). Fine impressions; occasional soiling and rubbing, a few printer’s creases, but in general a very fine set.
[Orléans or Paris, post 1551]. $6,000.00
Geymüller p. 299f.,; Museum Boymans-van Beuningen: In de Vier Winden: De prentuitgeverij van Hieronymus Cock 1507/10-1570 te Antwerpen (Rotterdam, 1988), no. 15ff.; Berlin 1836
15 FALDA, GIOVANNI BATTISTA. Li giardini di Roma con le loro piante alzate e vedute in prospettiva. 21 etched and engraved plates, including engraved title and magnificent allegorical dedication leaf, by Gio. Battista Manelli after Arnold van Westerhout, of the garden of the "Roman Hesperides." Oblong folio. Nineteenth-century marbled boards, 3/4 calf (rubbed). Both artistically and historically, a very important publication on nine of the most celebrated gardens of Rome--at the Vatican and Quirinal palaces, and the villas Borghese, Medici, Pamphili, Mattei, Farnese, Ludovisi and Savelli-Peretti--of which only three survive in anything resembling their original state. The extremely accurate and exquisite plates, which alternately present bird’s-eye views and prospects, are by both Falda and Simone Felice. This copy is a rare early issue, with plates before numbers (though the title-page is undated, unlike the first issue, where it is dated 1683). A few marginal stains, a little light foxing; a fine copy, with splendid impressions.
Roma (Gio. Giacomo de’ Rossi), [after 1683]. $7,500.00
Berlin 3492; Olschki 16895; Brunet II.1172; Graesse II.549
16 FERRERIO, PIETRO & FALDA, GIOVANNI-BATTISTA. Palazzi di Roma de più celebri architetti. Disegnati da Pietro Ferrerio pittore et architetto. Libro Primo. [Falda, Giovanni-Battista. Nuovi disegni dell’architetture, e piante de’ Palazzi di Roma de’ più celebri architetti disegnati et intagliati da Gio. Battista Falda.... Libro secondo.] I: 42 etched and engraved plates (including title); II: 61 etched and engraved plates (including title). Oblong folio. Eighteenth-century marbled boards, 1/4 leather (with early rebacking). This set is a rare early issue, with plates before numbers (though after the addition of the mention of "Libro primo" and "Libro secondo" on the title pages, which had not appeared in the first issue). It also contains the correct complement of 103 plates which characterizes the first issue (42 and 61 respectively, in the two parts, including titles); in contrast, later issues contain a total of 105, including two plates added by Domenico de’ Rossi to the second book after 1691.
"This is the first publication to provide systematic, measured and uniformly scaled illustrations of Roman palaces built in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By focusing exclusively on the palace, this book becomes a compendium of exempla, not only illustrating the houses of a very special city, but also establishing the typology of the residential palace.... Ferrerio’s collection of palace façades and plans provided an important model for what became a distinct type of publication.... This trendsetting book on Roman palaces is divided into two parts. Ferrerio was the author of most of the illustrations in the first part, except for one sheet engraved by Giovanni Battista Falda, who was also responsible for forty of the sixty sheets of the second part. While Falda’s work and successful career as an engraver associated with the Roman published Giovanni Giacomo de’ Rossi have been amply documented, much less is known about Ferrerio, who seems to have practiced as an architect and engraver, and whose principal claim to recognition is this album of palace illustrations" (Millard). One plate from the first book is bound out of sequence, in the second. Intermittent light soiling and a little foxing; a fine copy.
Roma (Gio. Jacomo Rossi/ Gio. Giacomo de’ Rossi), [before 1691]. $8,500.00
Millard IV.37; Cicognara 3719; Fowler 120; Berlin 2665; Besterman: Old Art Books 40; Brunet II.1235; Graesse II.573
17 FOSSATI, GASPARD. Aya Sofia Constantinople as Recently Restored by Order of H.M. The Sultan Abdul Medjid. 3ff. letterpress description of the plates. Lithographic title page and 25 tinted lithographic plates (in two tints) by Louis Haghe after Fossati, mounted on guards. Printed titles in Turkish pasted beneath imprint. 2º (542 x 390 mm.). Contemporary quarter morocco (rubbed, front hinge split, somewhat chipped at head and foot of spine). Occasional light dampstaining (plate 10 somewhat more affected) with partial loss of Turkish inscription below the print; a few plates a bit frayed or creased in the blank margin, where loosening from the hinges. First edition of the first modern account of Hagia Sophia. The short text in the book (in French, notwithstanding the English title) was written from Fossati’s notes by the Vicomte Adalbert de Beaumont, and the design of the title-page is attributed to Owen Jones. Fossati, an Italian/Swiss architect who worked in Russia before travelling to Constantinople in 1837, entered the service of the Porte in 1845, and in 1847 was charged with the restoration of the Hagia Sophia. Although the separate work he intended to publish on the mosaics never appeared, and they were again covered up once the restoration work had been done, this is the first modern record of both the exterior and the interior of the building. As Abbey notes, the lithographs represent the last work undertaken by Louis Haghe (1806-1885) before he broke off his connection with William Day to concentrate on watercolor painting, and the subject was an appropriate one for a lithographer who had spent nine years of work on Roberts’ "Holy Land." A full-scale monograph on Fossati’s work at Hagia Sophia has been published by the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection: Teteriatnikov, Natalia B.: Mosaics of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul: The Fossati Restoration and the Work of the Byzantine Institute (Washington, D.C., 1998).
London (P & D Colnaghi), 1852. $16,000.00
Blackmer 619; Abbey Travel 396; cf. Mango, C.: Materials for the Study of the Mosaics of St. Sophia (1962) for more detailed information on Fossati
18 I paesi del Cavalier Gianfrancesco Barbieri, detto GUERCINO da Cento. Da esso inventati ed espressi in XIV. vedute, ed intagliati in Rame da Giovanni Penna in Parigi. Letterpress title, printed in red and black, with elaborate vignette (Piazzetta?), engraved dedication after Cesare Gennari, and 14 engraved plates by Penna after Guercino. Oblong folio. Modern boards, 3/4 leather, the front cover mounted with an early nineteenth-century red morocco label. The work was printed at the instigation of Benedetto and Cesare Gennari, and dedicated to Francesco II, Duke of Modena. The very fine engravings after Guercino landscape drawings are by Jean Pesne (Rouen 1623 - Paris 1700). Title-page cut down and mounted; central fold in dedication, with unobtrusive mend at foot.
Venezia (Giambattista Albrizzi ), 1754. $4,500.00
19 HOLLAR, WENCESLAUS. Ornatus muliebris Anglicanus, or The Severall Habits of English Women, from the Nobilitie to the contry woman, as they are in these times, 1640. 27 etched plates by Wenceslaus Hollar (including a duplicate of plate 25), each bordered by hand in red with a frame of double lines. Three plates (the title, the duplicate no. 25, and no. 26) are trimmed to the plate line, and skillfully laid down on the mounts, conforming to the format of the rest of the suite. 4to. Early nineteenth-century mottled boards, 3/4 leather gilt (rubbed at spine and extremities). A.e.g. Originally published circa 1640, Hollar’s famous series of fashion plates of English gentlewomen (actually twenty-five ladies and one kitchenmaid) was frequently reissued, even into the early nineteenth century. In his catalogue raisonné, Pennington enumerates as many as nine issues of the suite on the basis of publishers’ information.. This copy corresponds to Pennington’s state V, dated between circa 1710 and 1717. As he points out, copies are often composed of mixed states of the prints. Here, the trimmed duplicate of plate 25 is actually the first state of the print, whereas the integral example of it is in the second state, as are most others in this issue, which is printed on fine early eighteenth-century laid paper. Occasional very light foxing and wear. A fine copy, with armorial ex-libris and shelf ticket of Lambton Castle.
London (Sold by H. Overton at the White Horse without Newgate), 1640. $4,500.00
Pennington, Richard: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etched Work of Wenceslaus Hollar, 1607-1677 (Cambridge/New York, 1982), nos. 1778-1801; Lipperheide Gca 3; Colas 1464
20 LA FONTAINE [JEAN DE]. Fables choisies, mise en vers. 4 vols. I: (2), xxx, xviii, 124pp. II: (2), ii, 135, (1)pp. III: (2), iv, 146pp. IV: (2), ii, 188pp. Frontispiece and 275 full-page plates hors texte, after Jean-Baptiste Oudry by Charles-Nicolas Cochin, engraved by Cochin himself, Aliamet, Aubert, Aveline, Baquoy, Beauvarlet, Cars, Choffard, Dupuis, Flipart, Galimard, Le Mire, Moitte, Radigues, Surugue, Tardieu, Teucher, and numerous others. Inserted in the first volume, the portrait of Oudry by Tardieu after Largillière ("found in some copies but not integral" per Gordon N. Ray). Folio. Contemporary full mottled calf, the spines gilt in 8 compartments. A large-paper copy, of which only 100 examples were printed.
We quote from David Becker’s remarks in Regency to Empire on the history of the work: "Oudry began a series of drawings to illustrate the fables of La Fontaine around 1729, more than twenty-five years before their publication in this lavish four-volume set. They were executed during the artist’s leisure hours away from his duties as painter for the royal tapestry works at Beauvais. He made a total of 275 designs for the fables, all of which were engraved for the book. The original drawings are often signed and dated, ranging as late as 1734, with a frontispiece added in 1752.... It was not until 1751 when the complete set of drawings for the project was acquired by the financier Montenault that their publication was undertaken. While securing a team of no fewer than forty-two engravers, Montenault also commissioned Charles-Nicolas Cochin fils to redraw Oudry’s designs, because their technique was deemed too free and loose for the engravers to follow. Cochin drew his more precise designs in the same format as Oudry’s, and the subsequent engravings were also executed in the same size. Several of the finished engravings were exhibited in the 1753 Salon, and the first three volumes of the book were published in 1755 and 1756. A royal grant enabled the final volume to appear in 1759 after the publishers encountered financial difficulties.... The volumes were printed in a very grand format, among the largest of any illustrated book of the time save for certain royal festival books. Three different sizes and types of paper were used for the text and the plates, with two grander formats issued in one hundred copies each. Oudry’s full-page plates were embellished with borders and titles, and the flower painter Jean-Jacques Bachelier (1724-1806) was commissioned to design decorative tailpieces to fill in the spaces at the end of each fable. His ornamental, rustic designs were engraved on wood by Jean-Michel Papillon (1698-1776) and Nicolas Le Sueur (1691-1764). These decorations often serve to counterbalance the complexity of the engraved plates opposite and are sometimes allegorical in nature. In fact, P.P. Choffard issued a suite of metal-engraved copies of these tailpieces soon after their initial publication (ca. 1760)."
Exceptionally tall, this copy measures 479 x 330 mm. (18 7/8 x 13 inches), substantially larger than those at the Pierpont Morgan Library, Harvard and the National Gallery. The plate for fable CLXXII, "Le singe et le léopard" is in the second state, as is normal in the large-paper edition. Some rubbing and chipping at the extremities and hinges of the bindings, with small losses at head and feet of backstrips; intermittent unobtrusive dustiness and pale foxing; withal an excellent copy, bearing the engraved ex-libris of the Bibliothèque de Champy fils aîné in each volume.
Paris (Desaint & Saillant/ Durand), 1755-1759. $18,000.00
Ray 5; Cohen-de Ricci 548-550, supplement 280; Portalis 483-489; Girardin (1913); Rochambeau 86; Tchemerzine VI.390f.; Brunet III.753; Graesse IV.73; Guilmard p. 150; Cicognara 1125; Bland (1958) p. 209f.; Blumenthal, Joseph: Art of the Printed Book 1455-1955 (New York, 1973), p. 29; Regency to Empire 41; Opperman, Hal: J.B. Oudry (Fort Worth, 1983), p. 146f.
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
Cf., citing various editions: Millard French 101; Berlin 1888; Architektur in Darstellung und Theorie 56; Middleton, Robin: The Beaux-Arts, p. 27ff. (text by Werner Szambien)
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 painter, 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 friendship 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 important 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).
31 PORCACCHI, TOMMASO. Funerali antichi di diversi popoli, et nationi; forma, ordine, et pompa di sepolture, di essequie, di consecrationi antiche et d’altro, descritti in dialogo. Con le figure in rame di Girolamo Porro padovano. (8), 95, (1)pp. Fully engraved dec. title and 23 numbered engravings by Girolamo Porro in text (approx. 92 x 155 mm. each). Handsome woodcut publisher’s device in colophon, woodcut culs-de-lampe and lettrines. Lrg. 4to. Contemporary vellum over boards, titled in pen at the spine. Second edition; the first was published by Galignani in 1574. Mortimer notes that several of the copperplates (nos. 3-6, 13, 16) show signs of reworking. This treatise on the funerary customs of the ancients (Roman, Greek, Egyptian, Indian, Scythian and other) was used as a handbook by planners of princely funerals; Vincenzo Borghini, for example, is known to have consulted it for the obsequies of Cosimo I de’ Medici. The text is in the form of a dialogue about the plates, and begins with a discussion of the illustrator, Girolamo Porro, who is described as the inventor of a flying machine, as well as an artist of remarkable gifts. Porcacchi and Porro collaborated on another work shortly before this, ‘L’isole piu famoso del mondo’ (Venice, 1572). Porro’s illustrations are based in part on engravings in Pierre Woeiriot’s "Pinax iconicus antiquorum ac variorum in sepulturis rituum ex Lilio Gregorio excerpta" (Lyons, 1556). Occasional light stains and spots; generally a crisp copy, with strong clear impressions of the prints; covers slightly bowed
Venetia (Giorgio Angelieri, alle spese de gli Heredi di Simon Galignani de Karera), 1591. $1,750.00
Borroni II.13439.1; Cf. (citing both editions): Cicognara 1766; Mortimer Italian 395; Brunet IV.820; Graesse V.414; Adams P1903
32 PORTA, GIACOMO DELLA. Autograph receipt, signed, dated Roma 22 agosto 1589. 1f. (on one side of a formerly folded quarto sheet). 7 full lines. Io. Jac.o della Porta ho ricevuto da VirgilioPanzaroli ...Camerlengo della Compagnia della Sant.a Trinità scudi sessanta quali sono per frutti della Compagnia d’Uffizio.... On the verso, a directive by Panzaroli for the payment. A few losses along the path of the ink.
Roma, 1589. $3,000.00
33 POZZO, BARTHOLOMEO DAL. Le vite de’ pittori, degli scultori, et architetti veronesi. Raccolte da varj autori stampati, e manuscritti, e da altre particolari memorie. Con la narrativa delle pitture, e sculture, che s’attrovano nelle chiese, case, & altri luoghi publici, e privati di Verona, e suo territorio. [Bound with:] Aggiunta alle Vite de pittori, degli scultori et architetti veronesi. (8), 313, (33)pp.; (2), 42, (2)pp. Woodcut title-page vignette of Verona on the principal work. 4to. Handsome new patterned boards with leather label. An important source work on the artists and art treasures of Verona, highly praised by Schlosser, who calls Dal Pozzo "uno storiografo che è tra i migliori della sua specie," and the separate "Aggiunta" (here bound in) "un copioso elenco dei tesori d’arte di Verona, molto importante per la descrizione degli affreschi di case private in quella città cosí gaia di colore, e specialmente per un esatto somario delle raccolte particolari...." A very fine and attractive copy.
Verona (Giovanni Berno/ Pierantonio Berno), 1718. $2,000.00
Arntzen/Rainwater H116; Chamberlin 2035; Schlosser pp. 532, 550, 566; Cicognara 2351; Lichtenthal p. 61; Graesse V.429
34 RAFFEI, STEFANO. A collection of six publications on antiquities in the collection of Cardinal Albani, at the Villa Albani in Rome. Folio. Early plain blue wrapper. 6 works, bound in 2 vols. Contents as follows:
Ricerche sopra un apolline della villa dell’eminentissimo Signor Cardinale Alessandro Albani. v, (1), 18pp., 3 engraved plates. Engraved title-page vignette, cul-de-lampe and 2 illus. Folio. Contemporary heavy speckled wraps. gilt. A handsome copy. Borroni II.8151.1.
Together with the following 5 works, which are bound together in a separate volume:
1. Il nido. Canzone didascalica sopra un antico nido di marmo esistente nella villa dell’E.mo, e R.mo Principe Sig. Cardinale Alessandro Albani. 28pp., 2 engraved plates (signed Campanella). Borroni II.8166. 2. Dissertazione sopra un singolar combattimento espresso in bassorilievo esistente nella villa dell’Eminentissimo...Cardinale Alessandro Albani. Continued as: 3. Filotete addolorato. Altro bassorilievo nella villa dell’Eminentissimo...Cardinale Alessandro Albani. 28pp., 2 plates (1 double-page) with 4 illus. Borroni II.8122, cf. II.8151.1. 4. Saggio di osservazioni sopra un bassorilievo della villa dell’Eminentissimo...Cardinale Alessandro Albani. 56pp., 2 plates (by Campanella; 1 folding). Engraved title-page vignette, 4 engraved culs-de-lampe. Borroni II.8153. 5. Osservazioni sopra alcuni antichi monumenti esistenti nella villa dell’Eminentissimo...Cardinale Alessandro Albani. 69pp., 6 plates (1 folding) with 8 illus. Cf. Borroni II.8151.1. Folio. Early plain blue wrapper.
The six works are all present in first editions. The group was later republished in a single volume in 1821 by Carlo Mordacchini, in Rome (Borroni II.8151.1; Brunet V.1463). The antiquities described in these publications, which came largely from excavations at Tivoli, were grandly installed in Albani’s villa as though in a museum, accompanied by Mengs’ renowned fresco "Parnassus." An interesting account is given by Luca Leoncini in his article on Albani in the Dictionary of Art. Occasional light wear; the final work somewhat browned in portions.
Roma (Stamperia Salomoniana; Generoso Salomoni), 1778; n.d.; n.d.; 1773; 1779. $2,800.00
35 (RAPHAEL) Chaperon, Nicolas. Sacrae historiae acta a Raphaele Urbin. in Vaticanis xystis ad picturae miraculum expressa. Fully engraved allegorical title and dedication leaves, 52 through-numbered engraved plates. Oblong folio. Mid-nineteenth century black pebbled cloth, with gilt supralibros "A.L." Third state (identified in "Raphael Invenit" by the presence of the words "Lutetiae Parisiorum" on the title and "Petrus Mariette, excudit" on the dedication). "La serie delle 51 incisioni dalle Logge Vaticane realizzate da Nicolas Chaperon è da considerare --come rilevava già il Mariette (‘Notes Manoscriptes,’ p. 130) co il suo attento occhio critico--la piú riuscita e la piú aderente allo spirito raffaellesco fra quelle eseguite nel XVII secolo. Essa infatti costituisce l’espressione piú alta del gusto classicistico francese dominato a Roma in quegli anni dalla personalità di Nicolas Poussin. Gravitando a Roma proprio nell’orbita del Poussin, lo Chaperon incise le Logge nel 1649 sembra--come riporta la Daclos (1977, p. 5)--per incarico dello stesso pittore che aveva avuto dal re di Francia l’ordine di far incidere tali opere allo scopo di farle conoscere e studiare ai giovani pittori francesi non presenti a Roma" (Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò, in "Raphael Invenit"). Two plates supplied from another copy, trimmed and laid down (one with Parisian purchase annotations on the verso, dated 1808); one plate with small stain in image; generally a clean copy set, with occasional small stains confined to margins; light wear to the binding. Presentation inscription in the blank margin at the head of the title, from the eminent French Salon painter and Prix de Rome winner Émile Lévy to his son Auguste, February 1844.
Rome (P. Mariette), 1649. $3,000.00
Raphael Invenit: Logge VI (p. 86ff.); Brunet IV.1108; Graesse VI.26
36 Gersaint, Edmé François. Catalogue raisonné de toutes les pièces qui forment l’oeuvre de REMBRANDT. Mis au jour, avec les augmentations nécessaires, par les sieurs Helle et Glomy. xxxii, 326, (2)pp. Fine etched frontis. portrait, signed J.B.G. (Jean-Baptiste Glomy?), after Rembrandt’s "Self-Portrait with Saskia." Nineteenth-century speckled boards with paper label. First edition of the first catalogue ever published of Rembrandt’s etchings, written by the distinguished art dealer and connoisseur Gersaint. Title-page with small loss at right margin, and with early ownership signatures; one section a bit browned; a very nice copy, ex-libris F.F. Hofbibliothek Donaueschingen.
Paris (Hochereau l’aîné), 1751. $750.00
Freitag 10391; Riggs p. 653
37 RICHARDSON [JONATHAN], SEN & JUN. An Account of Some of the Statues, Bas-Reliefs, Drawings and Pictures in Italy, &c. With remarks. (50), 357, (5)pp. 2 wood-engraved figs. in text; wood-engraved culs-de-lampe. Sm. 4to. Contemporary sprinkled calf gilt (unobtrusively renewed at hinges, with original backstrip laid down). A fine copy, crisp and fresh. First edition; a second edition appeared in 1754, expanded with the younger Richardson’s letters to his father from the Continent. "I veri e proprii popoli di viaggiatori di quel tempo, gli Inglesi, i Tedeschi e i Francesi si sono mostrati presto attivi in questo campe anche letterariamente. L’opera piú importante e significativa del genere è dovuta a Jonathan Richardson (1722)" (Schlosser). A very important book in the literature of art history, and in the history of taste and connoisseurship.
London (J. Knapton ), 1722 . $1,600.00
Borroni II.3143; Schlosser p. 539; Dobai I.690.886ff.; Pine-Coffin 722
38 SAMMELBAND. Three reproductive suites published by Giovanni Giacomo de’ Rossi, circa 1675-1690, of great fresco cycles in Rome: Pietro da Cortona’s Galleria of the Palazzo Pamphili, by Cesio; Raphael’s decorations in the Vatican logge, by Aquila and Fantetti; and Annibale Carracci’s ceiling of the Camerino of the Farnese Palace, by Aquila. All plates are hinged onto stubs. Fine late eighteenth-century marbled boards, 3/4 red morocco, the spine (somewhat faded and rubbed) gilt with Essex cypher and coronet, and inscribed in compartments "Prince Panfilio’s Gallery," "Raphaels Gallery," and "Imagines Farnesian"; within, a contemporary shelf label, and, at the outset of the second and third suites, the armorial ex-libris of Algernon Capell, 2nd Earl of Essex (1701). Contents as follows:
1. (Pietro da Cortona) Galeria dipinta nel Palazzo del Prencipe Panfilo da Pietro Berettini da Cortona intagliata da Carlo Cesio. 16 etched plates by Cesio after Pietro da Cortona (14 double-page, of which 3 folding), including fully etched title and dedication, all before numbers, of which 15 in first states (including 2 of which there are no recorded impressions) and 1 in an undescribed state between the first and second.
This magnificent suite records one of the greatest Roman baroque fresco cycles, the ceiling of the gallery of the Palazzo Pamphili, painted by Pietro da Cortona between 1651 and 1654. Depicting the story of Aeneas (from whom the Pamphili claimed descent), it was the most important work of Pietro’s late maturity, and the most important undertaking in painting during the pontificate of Innocent X. Carlo Cesio (1626-1686) was one of Pietro’s leading pupils; though his activity as a printmaker was confined almost entirely to reproductive engravings, the series is quite freely and expressively drawn, on a grand scale. Undated, the work can have been issued no later than 1677, when, as noted by Paolo Bellini (in The Illustrated Bartsch), it appears in de’ Rossi’s list of publications. As the suite is dedicated by Cesio to Prince Camillo Pamphili, who died in 1667, the etchings were presumably completed a decade before. Sets of the first state are quite rare, and indeed Bellini was unable to locate examples of two of the states which are present here (4705.066.S1 and 4705.079.S1) and only surmised their existence "by analogy with others in this series." The title plate, furthermore, is present in an unrecorded intermediate state (of 3), including the publisher’s address as inscribed in the second state, but before numbering. Superb impressions throughout, with plate tone. One plate (B.4705.069.S1) with a small loss at right edge of the subject, with old mend (blank infill); otherwise the series is in extremely fresh condition. Tipped onto the verso of the title plate, the armorial ex-libris of Algernon Cappell, second Earl of Essex (1701).
Roma (Gio. Iacomo Rossi, alla Pace alinsegna [sic] di Parigi), n.d. (circa 1677?)
Bellini, Paolo (editor). The Illustrated Bartsch, Vol. 47: Commentary, Part 1 (New York, 1987), 4705.065-.080; Berlin 4095; Brunet I.811f.; Graesse I.348
2. (Raphael) Aquila, Pietro & Fantetti, Cesare. Imagines Veteris ac Novi Testamenti. 55 etched and engraved plates by Aquila and Fantetti after Raphael’s fresco decorations in the Vatican logge, including elaborate dedication portrait of Queen Christina of Sweden and frontispiece portrait of Raphael after Maratta (both folding), a plate of Raphael’s fresco of the prophet Isaiah at S. Agostino, Rome (here bound in at the end), and 52 through-numbered plates.
"Le ‘Imagines Veteris ac Novi Testamenti’ furono pubblicate a Roma nel 1675 da Giangiacomo de Rossi e costituiscono uno dei tributi piú importanti del classicismo seicentesco all’opera di Raffaello.... L’opera deve essere stata ideata nell’ambiente ufficiale del classicismo romano del tardo Seicento, perchè reca nel primo frontispizio la dedica di Giangiacomo de Rossi alla Regina Cristina di Svezia, nota committente e collezionista, e nel secondo inciso da Aquila composto dal ritratto da Raffaello coronato dalla Fama e pianto dalle tre Arti--Pittura, Scultura e Architettura--, il disegno si deve a Carlo Maratta, maestro riconosciuto del classicismo seicentesco.... Lo stile delle incisioni è piuttosto misurato e piano; le tavole incise dallo Aquila mostrano una maggio sicurezza d’intaglio e una linea piú modulata, dovuta forse alla sua pratica come incisore di disegni del Maratta e della sua scuola" (Raphael Invenit). Brilliant impressions, with plate tone, in fresh condition. Tipped onto the verso of the dedication portrait, the armorial ex-libris of Algernon Capell, second Earl of Essex (1701).
[Roma] (Jo. Jacobi de Rubeis cura ac sumptibs, delineatae, incisae, ac typis editae), 1675.
Bernini Pezzini, Grazia, et al: Raphael Invenit: Stampe da Raffaello nelle collezioni dell’Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica (Roma, 1985), Logge VII; Cicognara 2051
3. (Carracci, Annibale) Imagines Farnesiani cubiculi. Cum ipsarum monocromatibus et ornamentis Romae in aedibus sereniss. ducis parmensis ab Annibale Carracci aeternitati pictae. A Pietro Aquila delineatae incisae. 13 double-page numbered and signed engravings, with 14 subjects, depicting the frescos by Annibale for the ceiling of the Camerino in the Palazzo Farnese. Commissioned by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese and executed between 1595 and 1597, the cycle was the immediate predecessor of Annibale’s yet more famous decorations in the Galleria of the palace. The suite is stabbed in the upper margin, probably indicating that it was formerly bound (sideways) in wrappers or an earlier album, perhaps Aquila’s "Galeriae farnesinae icones Romae," a series of 21 plates which, Brunet notes, it usually accompanies. Bright, strong impressions, in fresh condition.
Roma (Io. Iacobus de Rubeis cura, sumptibus, ac typis editae, ad Templ. S. Mariae de Pace cu. Priv. S. Pont.), n.d. (circa 1690?)
Berlin 4086 ; Guilmard p. 319 no. 40; Besterman p. 1 $8,500.00
39 SANDYS [GEORGE]. Sandys Travels, Containing an History of the Original and Present State of the Turkish Empire: their laws, government policy, military force, courts of justice, and commerce. The Mahometan religion and ceremonies: a description of Constantinople, the Grand Signior’s seraglio and his manner of living: also, of Greece, with the religion and customs of the Grecians. Of Aegypt; the antiquity, hieroglyphicks, rites, customs, discipline, and religion of the Aegyptians.... Of Armenia...A Description of the Holy-Land....Lastly Italy described.... Seventh edition. (4), 240pp. Fully engraved dec. half-title ("6th edition"), folding map, and folding engraved panorama of Constantinople hors texte. 47 engraved illus. Lrg. 4to. Handsome contemporary English speckled calf gilt. "The work was first published in 1615 and reprinted many times during the 17th century. At that time it was the most elaborately illustrated book on the Levant. Sandys, who travelled in 1610 and 1611, was regarded as a special authority throughout the 17th century" (Blackmer). A very fine copy.
London (John Williams Junior), 1673. $1,750.00
Atabey 1087; Wing S680; cf. Blackmer 1484; Cox I.206 (misdated 1672)
40 Pompei, Alessandro. Li cinque ordini dell’architettura civile di MICHEL SANMICHELI. Rilevati dalle sue fabriche, e descritti e publicati con quelli di Vitruvio, Alberti, Palladio, Scamozzi, Serlio, e Vignola. 112pp. Superb etched frontispiece by Antonio Balestra, with portrait medallion of Sanmicheli admired by the personification of Architecture and a putto; etched title-page vignette, also by Balestra, of a putto with drawing instruments; 6 etched headpieces (4 with portrait roundels of architects); 37 full-page etched plates in text, by Pompei after Gaudenzio Bellini; 1 additional etched plate (half-page). Sm. folio. Early buff heavy wraps., backed with marbled paper. First edition, intermediate issue, with title identical to that described in the RIBA and Fowler catalogues, but collating like that in the Millard collection, which has a variant title. Millard states that priority of one issue over the other cannot be assigned with certainty.
This is the first monograph on Sanmicheli. Its author, Count Alessandro Pompei, whose family seat, the Palazzo Pompei in Verona, was designed by Sanmicheli, was also a practicing architect of some distinction, thoroughly steeped in Vitruvianism. The book was extremely influential. "Noting the lack of extant drawings by Sanmicheli and the absence of theoretical contributions on his part, Pompei analyzed Sanmicheli’s orders of architecture, comparing them with those of the most outstanding published masters, in a project that parallels closely (though on a smaller scale) the reëlaboration of Andrea Palladio by Ottavio Bertotti-Scamozzi. Despite the rhetorical and aridly generalized methods--there are no references to actual buildings--Pompei’s study had significant consequences, reinforcing the interest of neoclassical criticism in Sanmicheli, already nurtured in the writings of Francesco Milizia and Tommaso Temanza, and providing a foundation for Ferdinando Albertolli, Francesco Ronzani, and Girolamo Luciolli" (Millard). It also contains discussions of the origin of architecture, and of classical models from antiquity through the Renaissance, and stinging criticism of baroque architects, who, he suggests, have corrupted a native Italian precedent with watered-down foreign distortions. The magnificent frontispiece by the painter Antonio Balestra (1666-1740), the teacher of Pietro Longhi and Rosalba Carriera, shows in turn the influence of Giambattista Tiepolo. One plate with very small hole at margin, affecting perhaps one digit of a number; a very fine, fresh copy.
Verona (Jacopo Vallarsi), 1735. $5,500.00
Millard Italian 106; Fowler 286; Cicognara 647; Berlin 2631; Comolli IV.227-235
41 Temanza, Tommaso. Vita di JACOPO SANSOVINO fiorentino, scultore et architetto. (10), 59, (1)pp. Engraved portrait hors texte by Pietro Monaco after Titian. 1 engraved medallic illus. Fine woodcut title-page vignette and lettrines. 4to. Fine contemporary flexible speckled boards. First edition. The work is the first in a series of monographs on Italian architects by Temanza, followed by lives of Palladio in 1762 and Scamozzi in 1770. A very handsome copy in entirely original state.
Venezia (Giacomo Storti), 1752. $1,200.00
Schlosser p. 560; Fowler 343
42 SAVARY [CLAUDE ÉTIENNE]. Letters on Egypt. Containing, a parallel between the manners of its ancient and modern inhabitants, its commerce, agriculture, government and religion; with the descent of Louis IX at Damietta. Extracted from Joinville, and Arabian authors. Translated from the French. Second edition. 2 vols. xi, (1), 467, (1), (2), 490, (14)pp., 4 folding engraved plates, including 3 maps and 1 a "Plan of the Inside of the Great Pyramid." Contemporary calf. Raised bands. Second English-language edition, following the first and second editions in French and English, 1785-1786. "[Savary’s] description of Egypt, together with Volney’s account, became the manual for scholarly travellers to the country. Savary’s work is particularly interesting because, as Carré says, he was the first Frenchman to cite Arab texts" (Blackmer). Tears at folds of plates. A handsome set.
London (G.G.J. and J. Robinson), 1787. $800.00
Cf. Blackmer 1492 ; Hilmy II.314
43 SILVESTRE, ISRAEL. Untitled suite of monuments and views of Rome, Venice, Siena and elsewhere (Faucheux 1.5). 12 through-numbered etched plates on buff-colored watermarked paper. Image size, to platemarks: ca. 115 x 195 mm. (4 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches). Sheet size: 210 x 286 mm. (8 1/4 x 11 inches). First state (of two). The subjects of the plates are: St. Peter’s, Castel Sant’Angelo, the Arch of Portugal, the Column of Marcus Aurelius, "Palais de la Vigne du Cardinal Pie, proche le Colisée," Piazza Navona, the Rialto in Venice ("inventé par Michel Ange"), the approach to Venice from the lagoon, SS. Trinità in Gaeta, S. Maria di Loreto, S. Maria degli Angioli in Porziuncola, and S. Domenico in Siena. "Très jolie suite sans titre.... Il y a une grande ressemblance entre cette suite et la suite du numéro précédent ["Vues de Rome et de Venise," Faucheux I.4]; on les a quelquefois mélées, et on les trouve dans le commerce, complétées l’une par l’autre" (Faucheux). Some of the suite has been mounted with small stubs at left, where once hinged into a binding, and the whole series expertly washed.
Paris (Chez Pierre Mariette, rue S. Jacques à l’Esperance), n.d. $2,000.00
44 SONNINI, C.S. [CHARLES NICHOLAS SIGISBERT]. Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt, Undertaken by Order of the Old Government of France. Illustrated by engravings, consisting of portraits, views, plans, antiquities, plants, animals, &c., drawn on the spot, under the author’s inspection. To which is subjoined a map of the country. Translated from the French. (2), xl, 730, 14pp., 28 engraved plates with numerous figs. (including folding map). Lrg. stout 4to. Contemporary calf (handsomely rebacked). Second edition in English, following on the three-volume octavo edition published in 1799, and here with plates reduced from the first French edition, Paris 1799. "Sonnini embarked for Alexandria in 1777 with Tott’s mission. There he received orders from Louis XVI to explore Egypt. He spent three years traveling through the country, as far as Aswan. He then went on to Greece and Turkey, returning to France in 1780.... His work on Egypt is full of important information: ‘un réel intérêt par l’ampleur, la variété et la précision de ses informations,’ ‘son ouvrage est plus complet que celui de Volney et de Savary’ (--Carré)" (Blackmer). A little browned, small marginal, stain at head of plates.
London (J. Debrett), 1800. $1,200.00
Blackmer 1573; Hilmy II.245
45 (TALLARD COLLECTION) REMY [P.] & GLOMY [J.-B.]. Catalogue raisonné des tableaux, sculptures, tant de marbre que de bronze, desseins et estampes des plus grands maîtres, porcelaines anciennes, meubles précieux, bijoux, et autres effets qui composent le cabinet de feu Monsieur le duc de Tallard. x, 273, (3), 8, 4pp. Handsome frontispiece etching by Huquier after Baudouin, of connoisseurs at a table; 1 hors-texte etching of a porphyry vase on a pedestal. Contemporary mottled calf gilt A very important sale. "The dearest piece of furniture sold in Paris during the decade of Lazare Duvaux does not figure in his accounts. The Duc de Tallard’s lustre, composed of 160 pieces of imported crystal, was auctioned in 1756 for no less than £640" (Reitlinger). This copy is discreetly priced in pen throughout. Neat mend in a blank section of the title.
Paris (Didot), 1756. $600.00
Lugt 910; Duplessis 312; Reitlinger Objets d’Art p. 27
46 Zanotti, Giampietro. Le pitture di PELLEGRINO TIBALDI e di NICCOLO ABATI esistensi nell’Instituto di Bologna. (4), 45, (1)pp., allegorical frontispiece by Bartolommeo Crivellari, dedication portrait of Pope Benedict XIIII and portrait of Pellegrino Tibaldi (both by Wagner), 41 plates by Crivellari and Giovanni Battista Brustolon (4). 13 culs-de-lampe and ornaments, engraved by Crivellari and Brustolon (3). Engraved lettrines (1 signed Brustolon). Folio. Nineteenth-century marbled boards, 1/4 cloth. Tibaldi’s allegorical fresco decorations in the Palazzo Poggi in Bologna (now the Instituto delle Scienze at the University of Bologna) were executed circa 1555 at the behest of Cardinal Giovanni Poggi. Niccolò dell’Abbate’s frieze decorations are slightly earlier, circa 1550. Both cycles are among the artists’ greatest works. Occasional light foxing and wear.
Venezia, 1756. $4,000.00
47 TORIJA, JUAN DE. Breve tratado de todo genero de bobedas asi regulares como yrregulares execucion de obrarlas y medirlas con singularidad y modo moderno observando los preceptos canteriles de los maestros de architectura. Por Juan de Torixa maestro architecto yaparexador de las obras reales. Fully engraved dec. title, signed Marcus de Orozco, with putti supporting cartouche of text within scrolls and architectural frame; (8), (78)ff. (misnumbered). 27 engraved plates (measured diagrams) in text. Woodcut lettrines, culs-de-lampe. Tall 4to. Modern mottled calf with raised bands, gilt at spine. A double treatise, each part of ten chapters, on proportion in vaulting, by this ‘Arquitecto Mayor’ of Madrid. The work concludes with a long note on the "Autores en mis estudios he seguido y reconcido sus grandes aciertos," among them Vitruvius, Alberti, Palladio, Philibert Delorme, Serlio, Rubens, Domenico Fontana and Scamozzi. The engraver of the strikingly handsome title-page, Orozco, was a prolific designer of devotional prints.
We quote at length from the article on Torija by Javier Rivera in The Dictionary of Art: "In 1652-3 [Torija] was the principal architectural assistant for the royal works in Madrid, where he worked on the Alcázar de los Austrias and on the reconstruction of the Palacio del Buen Retiro.... In 1662 he reconstructed the main chapel of Atocha in Madrid, following the design of Sebastián de Herrera Barnuevo. He also participated in the reports on the construction of the sacristy of the Seville Cathedral. His greatest prestige came from his authorship of two books, ‘Tratado breve sobre las ordenanzas de la villa de Madrid y polizia della’ and ‘Breve tratado de todo genero de bobedas...’ (both Madrid, 1661). The first deals with municipal practices previously promulgated and defends the professional capabilities and competence of masters of the works, masons and bricklayers; it was extremely influential, reprinted several times, and used by the royal architect Teodoro Ardemans as the basis of his book on the same theme (Madrid, 1719). The second book, a treatise on vaulting, was polemical, as both San Nicolás (1639) and Ceán Bermudez...stated that its real author had been Torija’s father-in-law, the Madrid architect Pedro de la Peña (d. 1650), who in turn had plagiarized it from a manuscript version by Andrés de Vandelvira; Torija’s study, however, uses different and simpler mathematical calculations, and its practical nature places it much more in the sphere of bricklaying than in that of masonry or stereotomy, offering a broad range of solutions for building and shuttering of all types of vaults. The same book announced the publication of another text, the ‘Libro de trazas de cortes de cantería,’ which was not published because of Torija’s premature death." Expertly restored, with skillful renewal of right edge and portions of the foot of the title-page, and a small portion of the foot of the first leaf (dedication), including one and a half words supplied in expert pen facsimile. An exceptionally handsome copy of this very rare book.
Madrid (Pablo de Val), 1661. $8,500.00
Berlin 2764; Bonet Correa 647; Palau XXIII.293; Zamora y Lucas 67; Ramón Gutiérrez, "Bibliografia Hispanoamericana de Arquitectura" p. 74; El Libri de Arte en España p. 56
48 VASARI, GIORGIO. Ragionamenti.... sopra le invenzioni da lui dipinte in Firenze nel palazzo di loro altezze serenissime, con illustriss. ed eccellentiss. signore D. Francesco Medici allora principe di Firenze. Insieme con la invenzione della pittura da lui cominciata nella cupola. Seconda edizione. x, 174pp. Engraved frontispiece portrait and title-page vignette; wood-engraved culs-de-lampe, lettrines. 4to. Early pastepaper wraps. The first edition was published in Florence in 1588. As is noted by both Cicognara and Schlosser, this is in fact a third issue of the work, a reprint of the original having appeared in Florence in 1619 under the title "Trattato della pittura." "The ‘Ragionamenti,’ his explanation of the paintings in the Palazzo Vecchio, was published posthumously by his nephew, Giorgio Vasari il giovane, in 1588 from a non-autograph manuscript. This text was known in Vasari’s lifetime, however, and is mentioned several times in the ‘Vite.’ It is the first of a series of similar descriptions of complex palazzo decorations published by artists or their advisors in the last quarter of the 16th century" (Julian Kliemann, in The Dictionary of Art). A little light wear.
Arezzo (Michele Bellotti), 1762. $1,200.00
Schlosser p. 345; Cicognara 227; cf. Gamba 1729
49 VASARI, GIORGIO. Trattato della pittura. Nel quale si contiene, la prattica di essa, divisato in tre giornate. Et ridotto in ragionamenti, ne’ quali si spiegan le invenzioni da lui dipinte in Firenze nel palazzo di loro Altezze Serenissime. (8), 186, (18)pp. Woodcut title vignette, frontispiece portrait, culs-de-lampe, lettrines. 4to. Contemporary limp vellum (part of backstrip unobtrusively renewed in vellum). A reprint of the posthumous dialogues published by Vasari’s nephew as "Il Ragionamenti" in 1588; Schlosser suggests that here the title has been changed to mislead, for commercial reasons. The self-portrait medallion is taken from 1568 second edition of the "Vite" (also from Giunta), as is its mannerist tabernacle frame, although the frame originally accompanied a different portrait. The focus of Vasari’s text is a discussion of the paintings in the Palazzo Vecchio, "which occupied a large part of his creative energy from 1555 to 1572. It was the most extensive palace decoration executed to a coherent programme in 16th-century Italy and the prototype for the residence of an absolute ruler.... The programmes, devised with Bartoli and Borghini, were so complex that by 1558 Vasari decided to produce a written explanation of the decoration, the ‘Ragionamenti’" (Antonio Manno, in the Grove Dictionary of Art). A little wormholing in endpapers and flyleaves (very slightly affecting title), a little browning and marginal staining, a few contemporary annotations. Rare.
Firenze (I Giunti), 1619. $3,500.00
Schlosser p. 345; Cicognara 226; Brunet V.1097; Graesse VII.264
50 VITRUVIUS. De architectura libri decem. Ad Augustum Cæsarem, accuratiss. conscripti: & nunc primum in Germania qua potuit diligentia excusi, atq; hinc inde schematibus non iniucundis exornati. A diecimus etiam propter agrumenti conformitatem, Sexti Iulii Frontini De aquæductibus urbis Romæ, libellum. Item ex libro Nicolai Cusani card. De staticis experimentis, fragmentum. Cum indice ciouisussunim & dispositione longe meliori, quàm antea. (52), 262, (50)pp. 129 woodcut illus. Sm. 4to. Contemporary limp vellum. "This is the first edition of Vitruvius printed in Germany, with the plates based on those of the Como 1521 edition. The text is printed in italics with chapter headings and capitals in roman type" (Fowler). The volume contains, in addition, reports by Nicolas of Cusa of botanical experiments. Portions somewhat browned; early Jesuit library stamp on title; early annotation in Greek on the rear flyleaf; a pleasant copy.
Argentorati [Strassburg] (In Officina Knoblochiana per Georgium Machæropioeum), 1543. $5,000.00
Borroni II.2.7; Berlin 1806; Fowler 401; Cicognara 707; Riccardi I.613; Poleni p. 43; Graesse VI.37; Adams V-906; Ritter 2424
51 WEIROTTER, FRANZ EDMUND, et al. A Sammelband of five separate suites of etchings: two by Weirotter, one by Charles-Nicholas Cochin (Cochin fils), one unsigned, and one further (incomplete) signed P.P., after F.A. Simonini, Antonio Tempesta, Aureliano Milani, and P.F.Calza. Oblong 4to. Very fine contemporary German half calf, handsomely gilt at spine; exceptional marbled endpapers. From the libraries of Jean Furstenberg (with his ex-libris) and Otto Schäfer. The gifted and short-lived paysagiste Franz Edmund Weirotter (1730-1771) was born in Innsbruck and studied with J.G. Wille in Paris; he travelled after to Italy, returning with a great many sketches, and was appointed professor at the Vienna Academy in 1767. His work is unjustly neglected, as Bénézit, among others, has remarked ("Ce charmante artiste, très injustement délaissé, possède une forme très personnelle et fort intéressant").
These suites precede the collected edition of Weirotter which was published in 1775 by Basan, and the impressions are often much superior, particularly the two very striking mezzotint compositions in the second suite. The emulation of Rembrandt in both suites is unmistakable, and extremely interesting in its own right.
Contents as follows:
1. Weirotter, Franz Edmund. Suite de paysages. Dédié à Monsieur Wille, Graveur du Roi, de l’Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture.... 12 through-numbered original etchings, the first signed "Dessinés d’après nature et gravés par Fr. E. Weirotter. Plate size: 95 x 182 mm. to 120 x 200 mm. (4 5/8 x 7 7/8 inches).
2 through-numbered original etchings, the first signed "Dessinés d’après nature et gravés par Fr. E. Weirotter. Plate size: 95 x 182 mm. to 120 x 200 mm. (4 5/8 x 7 7/8 inches).
2. Weirotter, Franz Edmund. XII. vues de la Normandie. Dédiéea [sic] à Monsieur Brillon Duperon, Ecuyer. 12 through-numbered original etchings (two with mezzotint), the first signed "Dessiné d’après nature et gravé par F.E. Weirotter," and the rest "F.E. Weirotter fecit." Plate size (varying slightly from oblong to squarer format): 152 x 157 mm. to 155x 210 mm. (5 7/8 x 8 1/4 inches).
3. Cochin [Charles-Nicholas, Cochin fils]. Livre de paysages, gravé d’apres Mr. Cochin. 1758. 8 through-numbered plates with 29 original etchings after Cochin, including the title and 28 etchings arranged four to the page thereafter, each image individually signed "Cochin in." Plate size of title etching: 150 x 194 mm. (5 7/8 x 7 5/8 inches); image size of each of the etchings grouped on the following pages (within comprehensive platemark): 57 x 80 mm. (2 1/4 x 3 1/8 inches).
Paris (Chés la Ve. de F. Chéreau, rue St. Jacques aux 2 Piliers d’Or), 1758
4. Unsigned. A suite of 10 through-numbered etchings of Roman ruins, printed in pairs, on five plates (bound out of sequence). Each plate has been trimmed close to the platemarks at the end of the pair, and then mounted in the album. Image size ranges from 82 x 63 mm. to 109 x 95 mm.(4 1/2 x 3 3/4 inches). This very interesting suite opens with a memento mori allegory with putto, skeleton holding an hourglass, and a wall clock; following this are images of ruinous triumphal arches and monuments. It is very sensitively drawn. In more than one respect the series is quite reminiscent of Hubert Robert’s "Les soirées de Rome" and the little book by Louis Subleyras, "Nella veduta in Roma di madame le Comte e dei signori Watelet e Copette," both of which commemorate a visit by Weirotter, Watelet and others in their circle to the Accademia di San Luca in 1764. It may well be the work of someone in the Watelet entourage.
5. Untitled suite of battle pieces, military subjects and genre compositions by "P.P.," after Antonio Tempesta (4), Francesco Simonini (13), Aureliano Milani, and Francesco Calza (4). 22 plates of a through-numbered sequence up to 29, inconsistently designated but apparently integral, each trimmed to small margins and mounted. Plate size: ca. 120 x 170 mm. (4 3/4 x 6 3/4 inches). The etcher is presumably Bolognese, like all of the foregoing except Tempesta. The Simonini genre compositions are exceptional.
Bologna (Luigi Guidotti), n.d. $6,500.00
52 ZOBI, ANTONIO. Notizie storiche sull’origine e progressi dei lavori di commesso in pietre dure che si eseguiscono nell’I. e R. Stabilimento di Firenze. Seconda edizione, con aggiunte e correzioni dell’autore. 352pp. (mispaginated). 2 lithographic plates hors texte, superbly finished by hand in colors and gold (1 varnished). 4to. Publisher’s printed blue boards (somewhat worn and chipped). The quality of the finished plates is exceptionally brilliant. A little waterstained at top.
Firenze, 1853. $1,000.00 Fossati Bellani 3044; Cf. Bigazzi 3756 ; Graesse VIII.498