![PIRANESI, Giovanni Battista (1720-1778). Vedute di Roma. [Rome: c. 1760].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/1998/CKS/1998_CKS_05974_0183_000(104449).jpg?w=1)
Details
PIRANESI, Giovanni Battista (1720-1778). Vedute di Roma. [Rome: c. 1760].
2° (507 x 350mm). Etched and mounted on guards throughout. Double-page title, frontispiece and 33 plates. (Small repaired tear to one plate, short repaired tear affecting image of another, frontispiece shaved along upper margin, some marginal spotting and old dampstaining.) Old calf gilt (worn). Provenance: early manuscript numbering on verso of each leaf.
A good selection of contemporary Roman edition plates, all in Hind's first or second states, before addresses. Dating is based on the first printing dates given by Hind (1748-1760), the few watermarks that are decipherable (Robison no. 5 (see p.216) dated c.1748-1760), and the absence of an address (added from 1760, cf. Robison pp.212-213). From the manuscript numbering it would appear that the album has had five plates removed.
Piranesi started to issue the plates for the Vedute in 1748; various combinations were issued over the next thirty years with ever increasing numbers available. Initially 34 plates were available, by about 1758 a total of 51 had been issued, by the end of 1761 this had increased to 56, and at the time of his death, in 1778, 135 plates (including the title and frontispiece) constituted the complete work. Customers, however, whilst being encouraged to invest in a complete set of plates, would have been at liberty to pick and choose from the images available at the time, as is the case with the present album. Focillon nos. 719, 786-797, 801-822; cf. Hind pp.38-55.
2° (507 x 350mm). Etched and mounted on guards throughout. Double-page title, frontispiece and 33 plates. (Small repaired tear to one plate, short repaired tear affecting image of another, frontispiece shaved along upper margin, some marginal spotting and old dampstaining.) Old calf gilt (worn). Provenance: early manuscript numbering on verso of each leaf.
A good selection of contemporary Roman edition plates, all in Hind's first or second states, before addresses. Dating is based on the first printing dates given by Hind (1748-1760), the few watermarks that are decipherable (Robison no. 5 (see p.216) dated c.1748-1760), and the absence of an address (added from 1760, cf. Robison pp.212-213). From the manuscript numbering it would appear that the album has had five plates removed.
Piranesi started to issue the plates for the Vedute in 1748; various combinations were issued over the next thirty years with ever increasing numbers available. Initially 34 plates were available, by about 1758 a total of 51 had been issued, by the end of 1761 this had increased to 56, and at the time of his death, in 1778, 135 plates (including the title and frontispiece) constituted the complete work. Customers, however, whilst being encouraged to invest in a complete set of plates, would have been at liberty to pick and choose from the images available at the time, as is the case with the present album. Focillon nos. 719, 786-797, 801-822; cf. Hind pp.38-55.