![ZABAGLIA, Nicola (1674-1750) – [COSATTI, Lelio.] Castelli, e ponti... con alcune ingegnose pratiche, e con la descrizione del trasporto dell'obelisco vaticano e di altri del Cavaliere Domenico Fontana. Roma: Niccolò e Marco Pagliarini, 1743.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2015/CKS/2015_CKS_12114_0290_000(zabaglia_nicola_cosatti_leliocastelli_e_ponti_con_alcune_ingegnose_pra064008).jpg?w=1)
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ZABAGLIA, Nicola (1674-1750) – [COSATTI, Lelio.] Castelli, e ponti... con alcune ingegnose pratiche, e con la descrizione del trasporto dell'obelisco vaticano e di altri del Cavaliere Domenico Fontana. Roma: Niccolò e Marco Pagliarini, 1743.
2° (476 x 355mm). Parallel title and text in Latin and Italian. Engraved frontispiece portrait by Rossi after Ghezzi, and 54 engraved plates, four of these double-page, by Vasi, Specchi and others after Rostagni and Fontana. (Spotting, occasional marginal soiling.) 20th-century brown cloth, spine lettered in gilt, top edge black, others sprinkled red. Provenance: Joseph Gwilt (1784-1863, architect and author; armorial bookplate preserved from an earlier binding).
FIRST EDITION of this celebration of Zabaglia’s ingenious machines, commissioned by Benedict XIV. Zabaglia was curator of the fabric of St Peter’s, in which role he designed the scaffolding and machinery used in the upkeep of the building. Zabaglia was also charged with the restoration of the famous obelisk, and so the work includes a discussion of Domenico Fontana’s method for moving it, and a number of plates reprinted from Templum Vaticanum (1694). Joseph Gwilt wrote An Encyclopaedia of Architecture (1842), one of the most popular books of the Victorian era on this subject. BAL 3733 ; Brunet V, 1515 (‘ouvrage curieux et fort recherché’); Cicognara, 968; Riccardi II,642 (‘bellissima e rara edizione’); Rossetti 11489.
2° (476 x 355mm). Parallel title and text in Latin and Italian. Engraved frontispiece portrait by Rossi after Ghezzi, and 54 engraved plates, four of these double-page, by Vasi, Specchi and others after Rostagni and Fontana. (Spotting, occasional marginal soiling.) 20th-century brown cloth, spine lettered in gilt, top edge black, others sprinkled red. Provenance: Joseph Gwilt (1784-1863, architect and author; armorial bookplate preserved from an earlier binding).
FIRST EDITION of this celebration of Zabaglia’s ingenious machines, commissioned by Benedict XIV. Zabaglia was curator of the fabric of St Peter’s, in which role he designed the scaffolding and machinery used in the upkeep of the building. Zabaglia was also charged with the restoration of the famous obelisk, and so the work includes a discussion of Domenico Fontana’s method for moving it, and a number of plates reprinted from Templum Vaticanum (1694). Joseph Gwilt wrote An Encyclopaedia of Architecture (1842), one of the most popular books of the Victorian era on this subject. BAL 3733 ; Brunet V, 1515 (‘ouvrage curieux et fort recherché’); Cicognara, 968; Riccardi II,642 (‘bellissima e rara edizione’); Rossetti 11489.
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