Details
CELLINI, Benvenuto (1500-1571). Due trattati uno intorno alle otto principali arti dell'oreficeria. L'altro in materia dell'arte scultura. Florence: Valente Panizzi and Marco Peri, 1568.
4° (214 x 149mm). Blank leaf A6 present. Italic and roman type. Woodcut historiated initials, many depicting views of Florence, title with armorial device of the dedicatee, Ferdinand I, Cardinal de'Medici, printer's device at end (Vaccaro 120, fig. 60), typographic head- and tailpieces. (Some spotting, small marginal puncture in final leaf.) 18th-century buff paper boards, spine label, red sprinkled edges (foot of spine slightly chipped). Provenance: early marginal annotations -- inscription in Italian recording the loan of the book to (or by) the Brescian goldsmith Gasparo Rossi (on final verso, early 18th-century hand).
FIRST EDITION of Cellini's important treatise on gold, sculpture and metal-casting. In addition to outlining his own and other artists' techniques, Cellini discusses specific commissions and his dealings with fellow artists, in particular his relationship with Michelangelo. He discusses at length the difficulties he encountered in creating one of his most famous works, the bronze sculpture of Perseus and Medusa, commissioned for the Loggia dei Lanzi by Cosimo de'Medici, father of the book's dedicatee. One of Cellini's aims in writing the book was to curry further favour with the Medici, and he presented a manuscript of the work to Francesco de'Medici on the occasion of his marriage in 1565. The first edition is the only one to contain the sonnets by Agnolo Bronzino, Benedetto Varchi and others at the end, celebrating Cellini's monumental sculpture and other works. A FINE, LARGE COPY, previously owned by a goldsmith at Brescia. The two sheets of quire K must have been reversed in its original binding (corrected now), as early annotations direct the reader to the proper page sequence. Adams C-1240; BLSTC Italian, p.164; Cicognara 273.
4° (214 x 149mm). Blank leaf A6 present. Italic and roman type. Woodcut historiated initials, many depicting views of Florence, title with armorial device of the dedicatee, Ferdinand I, Cardinal de'Medici, printer's device at end (Vaccaro 120, fig. 60), typographic head- and tailpieces. (Some spotting, small marginal puncture in final leaf.) 18th-century buff paper boards, spine label, red sprinkled edges (foot of spine slightly chipped). Provenance: early marginal annotations -- inscription in Italian recording the loan of the book to (or by) the Brescian goldsmith Gasparo Rossi (on final verso, early 18th-century hand).
FIRST EDITION of Cellini's important treatise on gold, sculpture and metal-casting. In addition to outlining his own and other artists' techniques, Cellini discusses specific commissions and his dealings with fellow artists, in particular his relationship with Michelangelo. He discusses at length the difficulties he encountered in creating one of his most famous works, the bronze sculpture of Perseus and Medusa, commissioned for the Loggia dei Lanzi by Cosimo de'Medici, father of the book's dedicatee. One of Cellini's aims in writing the book was to curry further favour with the Medici, and he presented a manuscript of the work to Francesco de'Medici on the occasion of his marriage in 1565. The first edition is the only one to contain the sonnets by Agnolo Bronzino, Benedetto Varchi and others at the end, celebrating Cellini's monumental sculpture and other works. A FINE, LARGE COPY, previously owned by a goldsmith at Brescia. The two sheets of quire K must have been reversed in its original binding (corrected now), as early annotations direct the reader to the proper page sequence. Adams C-1240; BLSTC Italian, p.164; Cicognara 273.
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