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Raccolta di Varie Favole delineate
17441163571744. FOSSATI Giorgio. Raccolta di Varie Favole delineate ed incise in Rame. Six volumes in two. 16 44; 16 48; 8 76; 8 59; 8 59; 8 36 pp. Title-pages in vol. I with engraved ornamental borders printed in red. Illustrated with 3 engraved headpieces and 216 engraved plates printed in red green blue brown and black. 4to. 295 x 205 mm bound in full Venetian contemporary vellum boards. Venice: Carlo Pecora 1744. First Edition of one of the most sought-after Venetian eighteenth-century colour-printed works. The two hundred plus engravings are printed in the following colour inks: blue olive green sepia madder rose chocolate brown yellow brown Payne's grey reddish brown cadmium orange black and blue-grey. This scarce Venetian edition of classical fables with coloured engravings was designed and executed by the architect Giorgio Fossati. Birds beasts plants and humans are placed in Venetian pastoral or architectural settings. The latter are especially noteworthy and reveal the practiced hand and eye of their author; in plate XXXIII "The Gentleman and the Ape" the grand illusionistic stage setting recalls the work of the Bibiena. The Swiss-born Giorgio Fossati 1705-1785 designer of the facade of the Scuola and church of San Rocco in Venice was an important promulgator of architectural history theory and practice through his many sumptuous publications including new editions of Vignola Palladio and Félibien. Fossati specialized in books with illustrations printed in colour. The colour-technique he employed involved no overprinting or mixing just pure colour printed on heavy white Italian paper giving his books an extravagant Venetian character. Copies of the Favole that were bound in six volumes sometimes manifest additional engraved title-pages preceding each volume of text; the present copy like that of the Spencer Collection NYPL has the two engraved title-pages preceding vol. I. In our copy the allegorical explications of the fables in the first two volumes 8 8 pp. are bound before their respective texts. Fine copies in contemporary Venetian bindings are very rare on the market. This is a fresh fine and attractive copy in its contemporary Venetian binding. PROVENANCE: With later bookplate bearing a crossed monogram "L.L." surrounded in each corner by the emblem of medicine a serpent entwining the staff of Asclepius. Cohen-Ricci 410. Lewine 192. Sander 727. Morazzoni 232. Lanckoronska 108. Rosenwald 1570. Pedrocco The Glory of Venice Art in the Eighteenth Century 1994 ch. VIII p. 290 & fig. 190. hardcover books
Ursus Books · États-Unis47 500,00 $US≈ 40 189,75 €
