![BOCCACCIO, Giovanni (1313-1375). Il Decamerone. 'Londres' [Paris]: n.p. [Ranieri & Giovanni Antonio de' Calzabigi and François Gerbault], 1757 [-1761].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2016/CKS/2016_CKS_12140_0418_000(boccaccio_giovanni_il_decamerone_londres_paris_np_ranieri_giovanni_ant082637).jpg?w=1)
Details
BOCCACCIO, Giovanni (1313-1375). Il Decamerone. 'Londres' [Paris]: n.p. [Ranieri & Giovanni Antonio de' Calzabigi and François Gerbault], 1757 [-1761].
Five volumes, 8° (198 x 132mm). 116 engraved plates, including the portrait of Boccaccio and five frontispieces, most by Le Mire after Gravelot, many with a printed mark on the verso in the lower margin, engraved head- and tail-pieces throughout; extra-illustrated with the suite of 21 explicit plates after Gravelot. (Occasional faint spotting, the additional suite with slightly shorter margins.) Contemporary red morocco with flat spines gilt in compartments, lettered directly in gilt, the sides with a gilt French fillet border with small corner fleurons, gilt edges, marbled endpapers, gilt turn ins. Provenance: 'E.L.' (initials in an early hand on each front endpaper).
An attractive copy bound in contemporary red morocco of one of the most beautiful and celebrated 18th-century books, extra-illustrated with Gravelot's rare suite of explicit plates. Some of the finest illustrators of their day contributed to this Decameron, including Eisen, Boucher, and Cochin; but it is right considered Gravelot’s masterpiece: more than two third of the plates and all of the tailpieces are by him. The same publishers issued a French translation in the same year, but 'the earlier Italian text has better impressions of the illustrations' (Ray). The explicit suite was issued as a supplement, soon after the success of the edition had been established. In a letter to his patron, Gravelot reflects on what tone to strike with this suite, noting that 'though in this kind of composition delicacy is preferable to grossness there are people, as you know, who must have partridges and others who prefer butcher's meat' (quoted in Ray). Pia notes that both copies in the Bibliothèque Nationale are defective, the first lacking 11 plates from the explicit suite, and the second lacking eight. Cohen-de Ricci 159-60; Dutel A-248; Pia 304; Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, 15.
Five volumes, 8° (198 x 132mm). 116 engraved plates, including the portrait of Boccaccio and five frontispieces, most by Le Mire after Gravelot, many with a printed mark on the verso in the lower margin, engraved head- and tail-pieces throughout; extra-illustrated with the suite of 21 explicit plates after Gravelot. (Occasional faint spotting, the additional suite with slightly shorter margins.) Contemporary red morocco with flat spines gilt in compartments, lettered directly in gilt, the sides with a gilt French fillet border with small corner fleurons, gilt edges, marbled endpapers, gilt turn ins. Provenance: 'E.L.' (initials in an early hand on each front endpaper).
An attractive copy bound in contemporary red morocco of one of the most beautiful and celebrated 18th-century books, extra-illustrated with Gravelot's rare suite of explicit plates. Some of the finest illustrators of their day contributed to this Decameron, including Eisen, Boucher, and Cochin; but it is right considered Gravelot’s masterpiece: more than two third of the plates and all of the tailpieces are by him. The same publishers issued a French translation in the same year, but 'the earlier Italian text has better impressions of the illustrations' (Ray). The explicit suite was issued as a supplement, soon after the success of the edition had been established. In a letter to his patron, Gravelot reflects on what tone to strike with this suite, noting that 'though in this kind of composition delicacy is preferable to grossness there are people, as you know, who must have partridges and others who prefer butcher's meat' (quoted in Ray). Pia notes that both copies in the Bibliothèque Nationale are defective, the first lacking 11 plates from the explicit suite, and the second lacking eight. Cohen-de Ricci 159-60; Dutel A-248; Pia 304; Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Book, 15.
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