Rome, G. G. de Rossi, vers 1691.
33 leaves entirely engraved including the title, dedication and the etchings.
[Bound after]: FALDA. Le Fontane delle ville di Frascati, nel Tusculano, con li loro prospetti, Parte seconda. Ibid, towards 1691. 18 leaves entirely engraved including a folding one.
[Bound after]: VENTURINI, Giovanni Francesco. Le Fontane ne’Palazzi e ne’giardini di Roma. Ibid, 1691. 28 leaves entirely engraved including a folding plate.
Ibid. Le Fontane del giardino Estense in Tivoli… Parte quarta. Ibid, [c. 1691]. 28 leaves entirely engraved including a folding plate.
A total of 4 parts bound in one oblong folio volume [275 x 395 mm], mottled calf, gilt double fillet and blind stamped roulette on the covers, spine ribbed and richly decorated with fleur-de-lys, red mottled edges. Contemporary binding.
La plus belle suite de gravures sur les fontaines de Rome et ses environs imprimée et gravée à Rome en 1691. The most beautiful engraving suite about the fountains of Rome and its surroundings printed and engraved in Rome in 1691.
4 title-pages, 4 dedication leaves ad 99 engravings after Giovanni Battista Falda (1643-1678) and Francesco Venturini (1630-1710) interpreted by them and L. Rouhier. They represent fountains built in the 16th and 17th centuries.
“Accurate and well engraved. The 4th book, containing 28 plates is sometimes missing.” Brunet, II, 1172.
Copy from a very fine issue and well preserved, similar to the New York Public Library’s copy which 4th part was including only 21 etchings against 28 in the present copy.
Plates are numbered.
“This collection of plates is the most charming that has ever appeared on the fountains of Rome and its environs. Part I was issued about 1675 (Berlin Catalog 3603); Part II before 1687 as Gio. Francesco Negroni, to whom it was dedicated as ‘Chierico Delle Camera Apostolica’, became papal legate to Bologna in 1687 ; Part III probably about 1689 because it was dedicated to Livio Odescalchi, nephew of His Holiness Pope Innocent XI who died in 1689.
As in the case of Falda’s Nuovo Teatro all the copies examined vary in numbering and arrangement of the plates.
The ‘New York Public Library’ has a copy of Part I-IV, dated [1691?], with unnumbered plates: Part I [1-33], II [1-18], III [I-28], IV [I-21] ; ‘The Library of Congress’ has one copy with numbered plates, Part I-II [1675] I-33, 1-18 pl., Part III [1691] I-28 pl., and a second copy with Part I-III numbered, Part IV unnumbered plates [1-28]. The ‘Berlin Catalog’ (3603) lists a dated issue of 1691 with numbered plates in the four parts. The ‘New York Public Library’ has a much later edition, issued with the stamp of the ‘Calcografia Di Roma’ in the corner of the plates. Between 1798 and 1815, many sets of earlier plates were reprinted under the direction of Giuseppe Valadier. There was also an edition with 42 plates, Nuremberg, 1685. Berlin Catalog 3603-3604 ; Bartsch XXI, p. 239-245, 248-249 ; Cicognara 3863” (Fowler Architectural collection).
Giovanni Battista Falda, born towards 1640 in Valdaggia, went very early to Rome to perfect his drawing and since then dedicated himself to engraving. Huber (Manuel des amateurs) finds large resemblance between Falda and Silvestre’s manners. He engraved Rome’s main views after his own drawings, or after the ones of the knight Bernin. His etchings are very sought-after. (W. S.)
“Drawings and engravings of his gardens, fountains and public buildings are executed with a very great science of perspective and surrounded by characters.” Benezit, IV, 255.
A superb and very pure copy, on large paper, preserved in its contemporary binding.
Provenance: Earls of Macclesfield with ex-libris.
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