Piranesi (Giovanni Battista) Le Antichità Romane, 4 vol., 1756

⁂ Please note, the description of this lot has changed ***

Piranesi (Giovanni Battista) Le Antichità Romane, 4 vol., an early edition, including letterpress title to vol. I, frontispiece with engraved portrait of Giovanni Battista Piranesi by Felice Polanzani, additional double-page frontispiece with dedication to Lord Charlemont [noted by Hind as only present in "rare early copies"], an engraved head-piece and tail-piece, six initials, together with 3 further engraved titles in vols. II-IV, and 243 engraved plates, many double-page or folding, in all 217 numbered plates [complete as called for by Hind], all printed on thick Venetian laid paper, many with watermarks of an encircled fleur-de-lis [Hind's watermark 1, "noted in early states"], vol. 1 C1 text f. remargined, spotting and toning to some sheets, particularly to titles and other plates closest to the boards, otherwise somewhat marginal, occasional surface dirt and minor handling creases, some careful repairs to marginal nicks, uniformly bound in near contemporary half russia, covers detached from vol. I but present, upper cover detached from vol. III but present, otherwise extremities worn, folio, Rome, Angelo Rotili, sold by Bouchard, 1756

Provenance:

Bookplate to inside upper cover of each vol. with the head of a stag surmounting a crown, initials 'E R D' below;

Private collection, Rome [sold with accompanying export license]

Literature:

Hind pp. 83-84

⁂ Early edition of Piranesi's monumental landmark survey of the remains of the Eternal City. Eight years in the making, the four volume magnum opus illustrates Piranesi's interest in recording not only 'the vanishing past for scholars, but [his desire] to present antiquity as a fund of experimental ideas for the inspiration of the present.' [John Wilton-Ely, Piranesi, exh. cat., 1978, p. 47]

The present copy was printed before the artist excised Lord Charlemont's name from the frontispiece dedication in 1757, an act said to be in imitation of the ancient Roman practice of damnatio memoriae, and the result of a misunderstanding between Piranesi and Lord Charlemont with regard to financial support for the project. In the same year, and largely in response to his Le Antichità Romane, Piranesi was made a fellowship of the Society of Antiquaries in London.