£23,000
A volume of etchings, the majority by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778). From the library of Arthur Clarke Edwards (1859-1916) and thence by descent Private family collection, Berkshire
Oblong 1o, 19th century quarter calf marbled boards (badly damaged), 57 x 78 cm., ticket (top left corner torn off) of [John Lewis B]ARNIKEL, BOOKBINDER, PEMBROKE on front pastedown, signed in pencil by Arthur Clarke Edwards. The larger sheets are 56 x 76 cm.
The plates are by Giovanni Battista Piranesi unless stated otherwise.
1. Veduta dell' Arco di Constantino. Hind 97 i/iii. Small tears in margins, vertical creases at left, soiled edges.
2. Pianta di Roma come si trova ai presente al presente colle alzate delle fabriche piu nobili cosi antiche come moderne. La quale si stampa in Roma da Carlo Losi l'anno 1775. Plan engraved in the 17th century by Giulio Testone. Folded in. Vertical creases, some soiling.
3. Roma. Plan of Roma, engraved by Giovanni Brun. Presso Carlo Losi, 1785. Some soiling at the sheet edges.
4. La Topografia di Roma di Gio.Batta Nolli dalla Maggiore in questa minor Tavola dal Medesimo Ridota. Etched by Carlo Nolli and the young G. B. Piranesi. First published 1748, this edition dated 1772. (Focillon 40; see Hind p. 78.) A tear upper left, edges slightly soiled.
5. Dimonstrazioni dell' Emissario del Lago Albano, from Descrizione e disegno dell' Emissario del Lago Albano, first published by Piranesi in 1762-64. (Focillon 480-91; see Hind p. 85.)
6. Veduta del Tempio detto della Concordia. (The Temple of Saturn with a corner of the Arch of Septimius Severus in the foreground.) Hind 109 i/ii. Some soiling in the upper right corner.
7. Veduta del Tempio ottangolare di Minerva Medica. Hind 74 i or ii/iv.
8. Veduta del Sepolcro di Cajo Cestio. Hind 35 i ii/vi, with the pyramid enlarged and Piranesi's address and price.
9. Veduta dell' Arco di Costantino e dell' Anfiteatro Flavio detto il Colosseo. Hind 56 iii/vi. With Piranesi's address and price.
10. Veduta de Palazzo Stopani. Hind 128 i/iii.
11. Veduta degli avanzi del Foro di Nerva. (The Forum of Augustus.) Hind 42. With Piranesi's address and price.
12. Arco di Settimio Severo. Hind 54 iii/vi. With Piranesi's address and price.
13. Veduta della Dogana di Terra a Piazza di Pietra. (The Hadrianeum.) Hind 32 iv/vi. With Piranesi's address.
14. Veduta del Tempio di Cibele a Piazza della Bocca della Verità . (The Temple of Portunus?) Hind 47 ii/v. With Piranesi's address and price.
15. Veduta della fonte e delle Spelonche d'Egeria... (The so-called grotto of Egeria.) Hind 80 i or ii/v.
16. Veduta della Cascata di Tivoli. Hind 75 ii/v.
17. Avanzi della Villa di Mecenate a Tivoli. Hind 65 i/iii.
18. Veduta del Tempio di Ercole nella Città di Cora... Hind 91 ii/iv.
19. Veduta di Campo Vaccino. (The Forum Romanum, the Colosseum in the distance.) Hind 100 i/iv.
20. Veduta del Tempio di Giove Tonante. (The Temple of Vespasian.) Hind 44 iv/vi. With Piranesi's address.
21. Veduta del Ponte e Castel Sant' Angelo. Hind 29 iv/vi. With Piranesi's address.
22. Veduta del Sepolcro di Pisone Liciniano su l'antico via Appia.... Hind 72 i/iii.
23. Veduta della gran Piazza e Basilica di S. Pietro.... (St. Peter's with the forecourt and colonnades.) Hind 101 i/iii.
24. Teatro di Marcello. Hind 33 v/vii. With Piranesi's address.
25. Altra Veduta del tempio della Sibilla in Tivoli. Hind 63 ii/iv.
26. A bird's-eye view over Rome. Unsigned.
27. The waterfall at Terni. By Carlo Antonini after Jakob Philipp Hackert (1737-1807).
28. Suite de VI Vues des Environs de Rome. A set of six small etchings printed on one sheet. By Balthasar Anton Dunker (1746-1807), after Jakob Philipp Hackert.
Plates from Antichità d'Albano e di Castel Gandolfo.
29. Sustruzioni di Clodio nella sua Villa sul monte Albano....
30. 1. Scenographia Insulæ Tiberinæ ... 9. Reliquiæ Pontis Senatorij.
31. Reliquae Basilicae Caii et Lucii....
32. 1. Reliquiae Porticus Caii et Lucii ... 3. Reliquiae Basilicae ipsorum Caii et Lucii.
33. Dimostrazione del lastricato della piscina...
34. Sepolcro antico su la via Appia; and another plate of finds in a villa on the via Appia.
35. Prospettiva della Scala della conserva d'acqua ....
36. Prospetto del Vesuvio dal Molo di Napoli. Etching by Filippo Morghen, 1779.
37. Eruzione del Vesuvio seguita la notte degl' 8, Agosto, nel 1779. Etching by Filippo Morghen, 1779.
38-58. Différentes vues de quelques Restes de trois grands Edifices qui subsistent encore dans le millieu de l'ancienne Ville de Pesto autrement Posidonia qui est située dans la Lucanie. Complete with the etched title-cum-frontispiece (bound here at the end of the series) and twenty etched plates. (Focillon 583-599; see Hind p. 87.) With the plate numbers (sets before the numbers are extremely rare). Watermarks Fleur-de-lys in double circle, indicating a Roman edition. The views of the temples at Paestum are Piranesi's last great work, and he died in November 1778, having received the imprimatur for the series but shortly before it was published. Plates XIX, XX, and the title-cum-frontispiece were etched by Piranesi's son Francesco, who carried on the business, in Rome but later in Paris. The texts on the plates were always in French, the lingua franca of the era. The set is in generally good condition but for some discolouration in the upper right corners. Plate XIV has a scrape upper left centre.
Provenance:
This collection, which includes some of the more splendid views of Rome and a complete set of the views of the temples at Paestum, the importance of which was finally recognised in Piranesi's day, must have been gathered together in the early 1780s, if the two plates by Filippo Morghen are indicative of the time of purchase (they could have been added later, of course). Whether the prints were loose or in another oblong binding before they were put into the present boards in the 19th century is hard to say, but the unobtrusive central folds are from drying rather than folding for binding and there is no trace of the guards on the versos which would suggest that they were removed from a folio volume (2o; much the more common housing of all Piranesi's works, including the Vedute). The binder John Lewis Barnikel (1770-1856) was active in Haverfordwest c. 1815-25 and in Pembroke c. 1830-50; he was clearly not very successful and died in Pembroke workhouse (see British Library, Database of Bookbinding; and British Book Trades Index).
References are to H. Focillon, Essai de catalogue raisonné de son Oeuvre, Paris: 1918; and A. M. Hind, Giovanni Battista Piranesi A Critical Study..., London; 1922 (facsimile edition 1968), a work principally devoted to a catalogue raisonné of the Vedute di Roma.
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