Beschreibung:

BONARELLI, Prospero (1588-1659). Il Solimano . Florence: Pietro Cecconcelli, 1620. 4° (202 x 160mm). Engraved title, 5 double-page plates by Jacques Callot after the designs of Giulio Parigi (2 repaired tears on plate 2, slight abrasion on F1 affecting a few letters, some occasional pale spotting.) 18th-century vellum, morocco lettering-piece (front hinge cracked, lettering-piece chipped). Provenance : Wilmot Vaughan, first Earl of Lisburne, Ireland (1730-1800, bookplate).
BONARELLI, Prospero (1588-1659). Il Solimano . Florence: Pietro Cecconcelli, 1620. 4° (202 x 160mm). Engraved title, 5 double-page plates by Jacques Callot after the designs of Giulio Parigi (2 repaired tears on plate 2, slight abrasion on F1 affecting a few letters, some occasional pale spotting.) 18th-century vellum, morocco lettering-piece (front hinge cracked, lettering-piece chipped). Provenance : Wilmot Vaughan, first Earl of Lisburne, Ireland (1730-1800, bookplate). FIRST EDITION, second state of the title. Bonarelli's great tragedy was performed in Florence in 1618. Jacques Callot illustrated the work, following the designs of his tutor and colleague, Giulio Parigi an architect and the chief designer of courtly festivities under the Grand Duke, Cosimo II de' Medici. Both Parigi and Callot were employed by the Medicis, and under their patronage Callot made his many improvements in etching. This is one of the last books he produced for the Medicis, since he returned to his native Nancy following the death of Cosimo II in 1621. "The dramatic finale shows the city of the tyrant Soliman in flames, The moveable scenes -- THE FIRST IN THE HISTORY OF THE THEATRE -- picture contemporary Florence. The whole of its effective contrasts of dark and light, seems fantastic, yet it is the rational and realistic portrait of a fantastic, imaginary subject" (Otto Benesch, Artistic and Intellectual Trends from Rubens to Daumier , Cambridge, 1942, p.17). Berlin Katalog 4112; Brunet I, 1089; Cicognara 1086; Gamba 1810; Lieure 363-368.