PARMA -- Descrizione delle Feste celebrate in Parma l'anno MDCCLXIX. Per le... nozzedi... l'Infante Don Ferdinando colla... Arciduchessa Maria Amalia. Parma: Stamperia Reale [Bodoni, 1769].

PARMA -- Descrizione delle Feste celebrate in Parma l'anno MDCCLXIX. Per le... nozzedi... l'Infante Don Ferdinando colla... Arciduchessa Maria Amalia. Parma: Stamperia Reale [Bodoni, 1769].

2° (552 x 397mm). Parallel text in French and Italian. Half-title, title with etched vignette, 4 section titles. Etched frontispiece, 36 plates (6 double-page), 4 headpieces. 8 initials and 19 tailpieces. (One double-page plate torn into image at fold, first section title with slight damage to surface of paper, small light brown spot to outer blank margins of about the final twenty leaves.) Contemporary marbled sheep gilt, covers with triple fillet border with the centrally-placed ducal arms of Ferdinand I of Parma [Guigard I,p.81 fer.2] (rebacked and cornered). Provenance: 2nd Marquess of Bute (pencilled note 'Luton' at front).

A VERY FINE FESTIVAL BOOK PRINTED BY BODONI the year after his appointment as head of the ducal printing works. Produced in celebration of the marriage of Ferdinand I (1751-1802) duke of Parma to the archduchess Maria Amelia of Austria, it describes and illustrates the various entertainments: tournaments, costume balls, fireworks, a pastoral play and a Chinese fair. The binding is probably original and is one of two versions produced: sheep for the more ordinary copies, and red morocco for the deluxe. Brooks 6.