Architecture.- Piranesi (Giovanni Battista) Prima Parte Architetture

Architecture.- Piranesi (Giovanni Battista) Prima Parte Architetture Prospettive inventate… fra gli Arcadi Salcindio Tiseio, etched title (second state) and 27 plates, including the complete set of four Grotteschi, plates 17-21 each contain 2 small engravings, plates 22-27 are double-page and on paper stubs, on various thick laid papers, several sheets bearing watermark of ‘T. Dupuy, Auvergne’, light foxing, gutter cracked at plate 1, 19th-century calf, rebacked preserving original backstrip, gilt, a few corners repaired, light rubbing to extremities, folio, [Paris], [circa 1743-57, but printed circa 1800-1809]. *** Piranesi's 'Prima Parte'... is his earliest book of prints, and the first expression of his love of architecture and ancient Rome. His depictions combine the reality and fantasy of architecture. When first published in 1743, the work had only 13 plates. The series then expanded to have 5 more prints, and then reprinted together with the "Groteschi" by Bouchard under the title of "Opere varie" (first ed. Rome, 1750). In subsequent editions, the small engravings illustrating the "Letters to Milord Charlemont" (1757) were also included, which in the "Opere varie" are grouped two per page and occupy plates 17-21. This insertion and the numbering of the plates in progression up to the "Groteschi" which occupy nos. 24-27, occurred in the third edition (ca. 1790) known as the "Roman posthumous."

Estimate:£5,000

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