Beschreibung:

PIRANESI, Giovanni Battista (1707-1778) and Francesco (1756-1810). A Collection of Works. Rome and Paris: [1753]-1837. 28 works in 22 volumes, 2° and large 2° (520 x 400mm. and 600 x 475mm.). Contemporary uniform English gold-tooled red morocco, covers with roll-tool borders of stylised foliage, spines decorated with large urn and star tools, green morocco lettering-pieces, gilt inside dentelles, g.e., by J. Wright with his stamp. THE COMPLETE CANON OF PIRANESI'S WORK IN A TRULY MAGNIFICENT COPY. Bound in mid-19th-century full morocco, it is the finest copy to appear at auction in decades. The set comprises over 1200 etched and engraved plates, in fine strong impressions on thick laid paper. (Some plates have tissue guards added, occasionally the margins or guards are very lightly browned or spotted.) The set was assembled and bound for Beriah Botfield in the 1840s. Botfield's aim was undoubtedly to assemble one of the most complete collections of the work of the Piranesis, both father and son. In this he was remarkably successful, collecting fine examples of the Roman editions, mainly 1760s and 1770s issues, adding Francesco's works issued in Rome in the late 1780s and 1790s, as well as his new Paris works, published in the early 1800s, and various miscellaneous views separately published. It appears that as his final acquisition he purchased from Firmin-Didot-his edition of the Antiquités de la Grande Grèce . The (eclectic) ordering and binding of the collection in red morocco by J. Wright completed a remarkable tour-de-force, and the set now forms a monument to Beriah Botfield as one of the most important English collectors of grand illustrated books of the last century. The set comprises: Volumes I-IV. PIRANESI, G.B. Le Antichità Romane . Rome: Bouchard, 1756. 4 volumes. etched portrait, 4 frontispieces, 208 plates, index leaves, many plates double-page or folding (occasional spotting). Volume 1: Etched portrait of Piranesi by Polanzani, double-page etched frontispiece with dedication to Lord Charlemont, printed title, 43 plates, 6 initials, 2 head and tail-pieces. Volume 2: Etched title, double-page frontispiece with Charlemont dedication on tomb, engraved index to volumes 2 and 3, 60 plates. Volume 3: Etched title, double-page frontispiece with Charlemont dedication (detached), 52 plates. Volume 4: Etched title, double-page frontispiece with Charlemont dedication, engraved index, 53 plates (without final plate LVII Focillon 395). AN EARLY ISSUE with the dedications to Lord Charlemont and the absence of the final plate of volume 4. Hind pp. 83-84; Focillon pp. 297-310. [For the Lettere di Giustificazione see Volume XVI.] V. PIRANESI, Francesco. Raccolta de' Tempi Antichi...prima parte..[seconda parte]. Rome: Presso l'Autore, [1780-90]. 2 parts in 1 volume, title to the first part only, double-page etched dedication to Pope Pius VI, 21 etched plates to the first part, 30 plates of the Pantheon for the second, many double-page. cf. Focillon p. 365. VI. PIRANESI, G.B. Della Magnificenza ed Architettura de' Romani . Rome: 1761. Etched titles in Latin and Italian, engraved portrait of Pope Clement XIII by D. Cunego after Piranesi, 38 plates, several folding or double-page, 3 initials and 2 etched illustrations, text in Latin and Italian. Focillon pp. 360-363; Hind p. 85. (For the Osservazione see volume XVIII.) VII. PIRANESI, G.B. Il Campo Marzio dell'Antica Roma . Rome: 1762. Etched titles in Latin and Italian, 42 etched plates (numbered to 48, the large plan by Arnold van Westerhout after Francesco Fontana comprising plates 5-10), 2 initials, 4 head- and tail-pieces, text in Latin and Italian within ruled borders. Focillon pp. 312-315; Hind p. 65. VIII. PIRANESI, G.B. Raccolta di alcuni disegni del Barberi da Cento detto il Guercino . [Rome: 1764]. Title and 16 plates only (of 26), printed in bistre and black, most by Bartolozzi after Guercino. Focillon pp. 363-364; Hind p. 86. Bound with 17 mounted plates by Barbier