Le Premier Siècle de la Calcographie, o, Catalogue Raisonnè des Stampes du Cabimnet de Feu M. le Comte Lèopold Cicognara. . . Avec un Appendice sur les Nielles du Même Cabinet. École D’Italie.
Venise: Joseph Antonelli Imprimeur-Libraire, 1837. Item #953 Comte Lèopold Cicognara was born and raised in Ferrara, educated in Modena, and studied art in Venice and Rome. He had an early career in politics but after the Napoleonic period he dedicated his life to art history and became one of the 19th century most important art historians and bibliographers. This catalogue prepared by his nephew Alexandre Zanetti focuses on Cicognara’s personal collection of prints from the 15th and 16th centuries. Zanetti provides detailed information on the various schools of engravers, with particular emphasis on the Italian school, but also examples from the French, German, and engravers from the Low Countries. Zanettii provides a biography of Cicognara, a discussion of his published works, and an appraisal of his library. He also discusses his uncle’s prominence in the field of art history and the recognition that he received from his colleagues around Europe. The appendix includes description of the niello prints, a subject that his research made famous and became a new area of collecting in the art world. Cicognara’s most important publication was Catalogo ragionato dei libri d’arte e d’Antichitá (1821) was based on his own library. “An early classified bibliography of the art books owned by Count Cicognara. The critical annotations by Cicognara are documents of neoclassical taste. Author index at the end of v.2. This celebrated library is now part of the Vatican Library.” “Throughout his collecting and writing, Cicognara amassed a fabulous art library. In 1821 he published what might be today his most consulted book, the inventory of his own library. Catalogo ragionato dei libri d'arte is a snapshot of the available literature on art and art history. In its own time, the collection's value was evident enough for the Pope to purchase Cicognara's library in 1824. It remains a discrete collection housed in the Vatican today. In his final years, Cicognara wrote and researched on the enamel work known as calcography (niello). The popularity of this work created a demand for this genre of art, so much so that fakes were created and sold as part of the Count's collection. After Cicognara's death, his collection of fifteenth and sixteenth century engravings of calcographic pictures were assembled by his nephew, Count Zanetti, and Ch. Albrizzi, under the title, The First Century of Calcography (1837).”
Thick 8vo. [2], xxi, [3], 576 pp., xxvi, 183, [1]1 pp. 215 x 140 mm., [8 ½ x 5 ½ inches]. Illustrated with two plates showing marks of designers and engravers. Bound in contemporary leather back marbled paper boards, joints rubbed and upper joint cracked at top, yet sound.
Arntzen and Rainwater, Guide to the Literature of Art History, A28. Dictionary of Art Historians, see https://arthistorians.info/cicognaral.
Price: $1,750.00