Palazzi di Roma de piu celebri architetti... Libro primo (Palaces of Rome by the Most Celebrated Architects... First Book)
[Rome]: si vendeno per Gio. Iacomo Rossi [Domenico de Rossi ?], [likely after 1691]. Oblong folio (36.3 by 48 cm). Part 1 (of 2) only. Engraved title and dedication (plate no. 1); 43 numbered plates (nos. 2-44) with elevations and plans of palaces (plate no. 33 plan printed and inserted in portrait format). Recent vellum-backed boards to style, gilt title at spine, yapp edges, exposed thongs. Finger smudges and light soiling (mostly marginal) throughout; 2 cm marginal tear at plate no. 24. A very good, exceptionally wide-margined copy.
Later (expanded) issue of the first part of these Roman palace illustrations by the architect and engraver Pietro Ferrerio (1600-1654). Palazzi di Roma resulted from an unprecedentedly ambitious publication policy of the print dealer Giovanni Giacomo de' Rossi. In additional to amassing an enormous collection of engraved plates, De' Rossi published several collections illustrating the architecture of Rome, including churches, gardens, and fountains. Ferrerio's death in 1654 delayed the publication of the second part, which would appear sometime between 1670 and 1678, with engravings by Giovanni Battista Falda (1643-1678). Ferrario's opus was the first "to provide systematic, measured, and uniformly scaled illustrations of Roman palaces built in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries... The illustrations in this collection demonstrate that Ferrerio was closely focused upon his work. He uses an unadorned style of representation, showing the chosen palaces in line drawings in plan, section, and elevation... and the regularity and consistency of the representational style is as remarkable as the uniformity with which it presents the palace facades, which are especially striking in the austerity of their disciplined composition..." (Millard). The most important Roman buildings are illustrated, starting from the works of Bramante, Raphael, Peruzzi and Michelangelo, then moving on to Vignola, Ammannati, Ligorio, Della Porta, and allowing modest space for architects of the 16th-century, such as Bernini, Borromini, and Domenico Fontana. A member of the Accademia di San Luca since 1634, Ferrerio's principal claim to recognition is in fact the present work. He may have provided a consultation in the controversial demolition of the bell tower at Saint Peter's built by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1641.
Notes on the issue points and the date of publication: Like the Fowler copy, all plates are numbered in the plate at the lower right-hand corner. Plate no. 1, the engraved title page, notes "Libro Primo" below the title on a pedestal beneath drapery which contains De Rossi's dedication to Cardinal Antonio Barberini, surrounded by an architectural background. According to Thieme-Becker (vol. xi, p. 226) the first part of Palazzi di Roma was published in 1655. The British Library likely has a copy of this first issue, with 41 plates and without "Libro Primo" on the title page. Our copy, however (apart from a small discrepancy in the count of signed vs. unsigned plates), is identical with the Fowler copy, comprising 44 numbered plates, with the addition of "Libro Primo" on the title. Plate no. 27 is signed "Gio. Batt. Falda incis." Plate no. 44 notes "nella Stamp.a di Dom.co de Rossi erede di Gio. Giac.o de Rossi in Roma all Pace con Privil. del Som. Pont." Careful inspection counts 31 plates signed by Ferrerio and 11 unsigned (vs. 29 signed / 13 unsigned, per Fowler). Fowler notes that their copy... and those in the Library of Congress, the Avery Library and the New York Public Library, which are dated [1655] in their catalogs, are a later issue by Domenico de Rossi of the plates originally published by Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi. Domenico took over the press sometime after 1691, the date usually given for the death of Giovanni. Four plates appear in this issue which are not found in the earlier issue at the British Library:
No. 20: Pianta del’Palazzo del’ Duca di Cere alla Fontana di Trevi
No. 25: Palazzo dell’ill.mo. Et rev.mo. Monsig: Gio: Francesco Negrone
No. 27: Veduta di dentro del palazzo del Card.le. Alessandrino Hoggi
No. 44: Pianta del medesimo Collegio Romano
One plate appears in the earlier issue which is not found in the present collection:
Palazzo de S.S.ri. Mattei alle Botteghe scure al presente habitato dall'Emi.mo. Sig.re. Cardinale Ginetti. Item #55639
Digital Cicognara Library 3719; Fowler 120; Millard (Italian and Spanish) 37.
Price: $2,000.00