Folio (230 x 360 mm). 3 parts in one vol. (100), 306, 80, (2), 38, (4), 96, (10), 28 pp. (20), 128, 52, (2), 26, (2), 34, (2), 30 pp. (4), 20, 8, (2), 10, (2), 26, (48) pp. All 3 titel pages printed in red and black. With an engraved frontispiece, 19 engr. portraits, 18 engraved plates (some folding), 2 engr. plans and 17 headpieces (8 woodcuts, 9 engraved). Contemporary vellum with giltstamped spine title. Wants ties. A complete copy of the most sumptuous of all imperial coronation diaries ever produced: the splendidly illustrated account of the coronation of Elector Charles Albert of Bavaria as Roman Emperor Charles VII on 12 February 1742, and of his wife Maria Amalia of Austria as Empress. Notably, Charles was the only person not born of the House of Habsburg to become emperor in over three centuries; it was only his early death in 1745 that once more cleared the way for Franz Stephan of Lorraine and the Habsburg succession through his wife Maria Theresa. - The large folding plates (after Lentzner, Funck, Lippold, Diehl and others) depict the coronation ceremony, entrances, the banquet, other celebrations on the square before the Römer, soldiers, wagons, structures erected for the pageant, the illumination etc., as well as the portraits of the Imperial couple and of the prince-electors. The notice to the bookbinder with the list of plates at the end of vol. 3 comprises only the plates in parts 2 and 3. - An extensive and important source, not least by virtue of its numerous supplements such as the long lists of guests to be entertained, providing hundreds of names, offices of the various retainers and large entourage, even giving the names of the cooks, bakers, and cellarers. "In questo assai grosso volume di circa mille pagine sono compresi tutti gli atti pubblici precedenti e susseguenti l'Incoronazione e l'Elezione. Cominciano le tavole col frontespizio, seguono 15 ritratti, e 18 grandi tavole intagliate [...] con molta e dispendiosa cura" (Cicognara). - From the collection of Karl Bacher with his fine, coloured bookplate on the pastedown. 1832 ownership of "Johannes Lang" on the verso of the frontispiece. Binding rubbed; some warping to vellum edges. Some light fingerstaining but largely unbrowned; upper corner of the flyleaf clipped. - Very rarely encountered complete as thus. Provenance: from the estate of the Frankfurt lawyer Wilhelm A. Schaaf (1929-2015), a specialist in economic, commercial and insolvency law. Lipperheide Sba 28. Kat. der Ornamentstichslg. Berlin 2898. Cicognara 1510. Kat. Sauer 259. Not in Ruggieri.
