Italy.- Saint-Non (Jean Claude Richard, l'Abbé de) Voyage Pittoresque

Italy.- Saint-Non (Jean Claude Richard, l'Abbé de) Voyage Pittoresque ou Description des Royaumes de Naples et de Sicile, 4 vol., first edition, half-titles, engraved title vignettes, engraved dedication to Marie Antoinette, 305 plates (including the 'phallus' plate in vol.2, which is often lacking), maps, and plans, some folding or double-page, numerous engraved head- and tail-pieces of which 25 hand-coloured in vol.2, a few maps and plans hand-coloured in outline, water- and damp-staining to vol. 1, very occasional faint foxing or surface staining, armorial bookplate, contemporary calf-backed boards, gilt spines, spine ends chipped with loss, joints splitting but firm, worn, edges uncut, [Blackmer 1473; Berlin Kat. 1904; Cicognara 2708; Cohen-De Ricci 928-930], folio, Paris, 1781-86. *** 'One of the monuments of French eighteenth-century book production.' (Blackmer). Jean Claude Richard de Saint-Non went to Italy in 1759 and studied art and architecture in Rome where he met the artists Fragonard and Hubert-Robert, who were among those who contributed drawings for this work. He travelled to Naples with them in the spring of 1760, spending several weeks in Naples itself, as well as visiting Paestum, Pompeii and Herculaneum, where he drew copies of murals and antiquities. On his return to Paris in 1761 preparation of the plates was put in hand under the direction of Jean Benjamin de Laborde, co-author with Zurlauben of the equally monumental Tableau... de la Suisse. However the cost of such a lavish production ruined Saint-Non and hastened his death in 1791. The magnificent engraved plates include views of Naples and its environs, neighbouring towns, Vesuvius, churches, palaces and other buildings, catacombs, temples, tombs, grottos, ancient and Renaissance works of art, and many other architectural and scenic subjects, with the descriptive text by Dominique Vivant-Denon.

Estimate:£8,000

View all items fromForum AuctionsorBooks, Maps & Manuscripts