In Parigi: [Venice]: A Spese di Giannalberto Tumermani Stap. Veron. 1742. Item #954

Folio.  350 x 240 mm., [ 13 x ½ x 9 ¼ inches].  [viii], 143, 96 pp. Engraved frontispiece and 24 engravings in the text.  The typographical design of the poem is Ricchi, who divided each page into two columns and separated the text with the use of decorative ornaments in the antique style. Bound in full contemporary vellum, leather title-label on the spine; vellum showing some signs of aging, but a very good copy in a contemporary binding.  This copy with an old catalogue description pasted to front free endpaper.

Very good copy of this landmark book in the history of Italian book illustration and printing is illustrated by some the most important artists of the period.  Including a monumental design of the “Creation of Adam” and a smaller design of the “Expulsion of Satan from Eden” by G. B. Piazzetta; an allegorical design in his recognizable classical style by Antonio Balestra; a half-page design by Antonio Mella Vera of the coat-of-arms of Antonio Andrea Gazola, to whom the volume is dedicated; and two half-page designs by G. P. Tiepolo, one a “Dance of Death” and the other, a stylized portrait of a young women and her dog.  There is also a lovely design of “St. Michael Leading Adam from the Garden” by Nicola Bilii, and others by G. B. Zignaroli, Vittorio Bigeri and two designs by Picart and one by Chasteau, which gives the volume an international flair.  All of which were engraved by Francesco Zucchi, the prolific Venetian engraver whose work appears in scores of 18^th century illustrated books.

Morazzoni, Il Libro Illustrtato Veneziano del Settecento, p.243.  Martineaux & Robison, The Glory of Venice, pp. 350-51.   

Price: $3,250.00