Beschreibung:

SAINT-NON, Jean Claude Richard, l'abbé de (1727-1791). Voyage pittoresque ou description des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile . Paris: de l'Imprimerie de Clousier, 1781-1786. 4 volumes bound in 5, 2° (480 x 320mm). Titles with engraved vignettes by Augustin de Saint-Aubin Pierre-Philippe-Choffard and Varin, after Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Duplessi-Berteaux, letterpress sectional titles, engraved dedication by and after Saint-Non, 399 engraved plates, maps and plans on 289 sheets, one aquatinted, 5 maps double-page, 4 folding, 2 hand-coloured, by Claude-Augustin Duflos Le Roy, Prévost, Saint-Non, et al. after Fragonard, Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houel, Hubert Robert Saint-Non, et al., 119 engraved illustrations and head- and tailpieces, 25 hand-coloured. (Scattered light spotting, occasional light offsetting, a few marginal paper flaws on text leaves and plates, some text leaves and one map browned, lacking half-titles, 5 pairs of plates bound in reverse order, leaf II/R2 bound in reverse, lacking plate 75 bis , volume III lacking 2 leaves signed * and ** called for by Brunet between pp.6 and 7 of the leaves inserted between pp.130 and 131, 5 plate sheets in IV, i with plates trimmed and laid down.) Contemporary diced russia gilt, covers with borders of a broad band between fillets, spines gilt, gilt turn-ins, marbled edges (extremities rubbed, covers lightly marked and scuffed, some cracking on joints, upper covers of 2 volumes detached). Provenance : some plate numbers corrected in an early hand -- Brynkinalt Library (early bookplates). FIRST EDITION, EARLY ISSUE. As Blackmer notes, Saint-Non's Voyage 'was the first work of its type to appear in France and it created a vogue', exemplified by the works of Houel, Choiseul-Gouffier, Cassas and others. Saint-Non, a gifted amateur engraver, travelled extensively in Italy, and planned this work with the collaboration of gifted friends. Cassas, Duplessi-Bertaux, Fragonard, Houel and Hubert-Robert-all contributed drawings, while Denon commissioned local artists to produce drawings of significant sites that the principal artists could not visit. Publication was by subscription in fascicules, but Saint-Non was ruined by the expense. The present copy is one of the earlier issues, with plates 87 and 88 marked 15 and 24 bis . It does not contain the plate of priapic bronzes in volume II (according to Blackmer, this was suppressed by the King of Naples), or the 14 plates of doubles médailles in volume IV, part ii, which are repetitions of the culs-de-lampe used at the end of the fourteen chapters. Berlin Kat. 1904; Blackmer 1473; Brunet V, 55-56; Cicognara 2708; Cohen-De Ricci 928-930; Reynaud 482-484. (5)