Perspectiva pictorum, et architectorum / Prospettiva de' pittori, ed architetti... Pars prima [-Pars secunda] (Perspectives of Painters and Architects)
Rome: J. Zempel [and] J. G. Salomoni, 1741. Recent Vellum. Two volumes, folio (41.2 by 26.8 cm), published in 1741 and 1758. All prefatory text in Latin and Italian, including two full title pages for each volume; most numbered plates printed recto only, with explanatory text in two columns (Latin and Italian) at verso. [Vol. 1]: [6] pp. + 3 full-page engraved plates (frontisportrait; title; additional unnumbered plate); 102 numbered full-page engraved plates (1 large folding); [1, index], [1, blank] pp. [Vol. 2]: [18] pp. + 2 full-page engraved frontispieces; 118 numbered full-page plates; [4, indexes], [12, instructions] pp. + 1 full-page unnumbered engraved plate (painting a fresco). Recent full vellum with exposed thongs, yapp edges, gilt lettering at spine. Intermittent light to moderate toning, foxing and/or soiling throughout; a few leaves more heavily soiled. Five leaves lacking small corner sections (not affecting images); fig. 77 (vol. II) with professional restoration at bottom corner (slightly affecting plate image). A good, wide-margined set, printed on heavy stock, now bound in beautiful period-style vellum. Complete with the large folding plate no. 100 in the first volume (often missing), which depicts the design for the vault of the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola.
Later edition (mixed set) of a seminal work, first published at Rome by Giovanni Komarek in 1693-1700. Pozzo's Perspectiva comprises the most important treatise on perspective of the Later Baroque era, and importantly helped to introduce Roman Baroque syles into Northern Europe. The design for the monumental false dome above the transept of the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Rome is depicted on plate number 100. This work was personally commissioned from Pozzo, and is one the most technically complex and visually dazzling examples of anamophic (trompe l'oeil) painting from the era. Though not an aficionado of Late Baroque design, Cicognara still acknowledges that Pozzo's mastery of persective is worthy of praise (la scienza prospettica di cui era doviziosamente fornito). Brief instructions on painting "al fresco," which include notes about color pigments, appear at the end of the second volume.
An important early-modern theoretician of perspective, the Jesuit Andrea Pozzo (1642-1709) "mastered painting, architecture, and scenographic techniques with equal skill, extolling the illusory power inherent in spatial imagery in a previously unheard-of way" (DBI).
Provenance: Old entries of Joannes N. Nemeroff [?] at front pastedowns; old inscription (partially trimmed) at bottom marginstamps of the Library of the Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia at Latin title margins, shelf entry number at Italian title margin, vol. II. Very good. Item #55457
References: De Backer and Sommervogel, vol. 6, col. 1144; Cf. Digital Cicognara Library 854 (ed. 1793); Cf. Fowler 251 and Millard (Italian and Spanish Books) 107, each describing: vol. I, second ed. (Rome: A. de Rossi, 1702); vol. II, first ed. (Rome: G. Komarek, 1700). Trecanni (DBI) "Pozzo, Andrea" by Richard Bösel and Lydia Salviucci Insolera.
Full title and imprint: Perspectiva Pictorum, et Architectorum Andreae Putei e Societa Jesu. Pars Prima [-secunda]. In quâ docetur [proponitur] modus expeditissimus delineaddi opticè omnia, quae pertinent ad architecturam. Romae MDCCXLI. [MDCCLVIII.] Ex typographia Joannis Zempel Austriaci prope Montem Jordanum [Apud Joannem Generosum Salomoni typographum, et bibliopolam. Praesidum facultate.].
Price: $3,500.00