Beschreibung:

Vincenzo RE. Narrazione delle solenni Reali feste fatte celebrare in Napoli da sua Maestà il Re delle Due Sicilie Carlo Infante di Spagna per la nascita del suo primogenito Filippo Rial Principe delle Due Sicilie. Naples: [Stamperia Reale], 1749. Exemplaire de luxe, reliure orné des armes de Charles IV, Roi des Deux Siciles. RÈ, Vincenzo (artist). Narrazione delle solenni Reali feste fatte celebrare in Napoli da sua Maesta il Re delle Due Sicilie Carlo Infante di Spagna per la nascita del suo primogenito Filippo Real Principe delle Due Sicilie. Naples: [Stamperia Reale], 1749. Broadsheets (640 x 480mm). Title with engraved vignette, frontispiece, 15 plates by Giuseppe Vasi N[icolas-Henri] Jardin, Angelo Guiducci, Felice Polanzani and Luigi le Lorrain after Rè, comprising 3 double-page plans, 10 double-page plates and 2 folding plates, one headpiece and one initial. Contemporary Italian red morocco gilt, Rococo borders on sides, ARMS OF CHARLES IV, KING OF THE TWO SICILIES (later Charles III of Spain), spine tooled in compartments, gilt edges, (spine and extremities somewhat worn). A de luxe copy of this great festival book, illustrated with plates by the celebrated theatrical designer Rè. The royal arms on the covers do not denote royal ownership and are composed from small individual tools. The work shows both the initial plans and the two-week celebration occasioned by the birth, on 13 June 1747, of Prince Philip, heir to Charles IV. The celebrations, which included fireworks, masked balls, banquets, opera and theatre, were bitter-sweet however, as it soon emerged that Philip was mentally deficient: Charles, on becoming King of Spain in 1759, left the Two Sicilies to Philip's younger brother, Ferdinand I. Philip died in 1777. Berlin Kat. 3078; Lipperheide Si48; Vinet 604.