Florence, Giuseppe Allegrini, 1744.
Oblong folio with an engraved frontispiece by Johann Gottfried Seuter after G. Zocchi and 50 engravings on double-page after the drawings by par Giuseppe Benedetti (7), Marco Antonio Corsi (4), Philotée-François Duflos (2), Giuseppe Filosi (4), Vincenzo Franceschini (1), Giuliano Giampiccoli (1), Michele Marieschi (2), Niccolo Mogalli (3), Pietro Monaco (7), Filippo Morghen (9), Johann Sebastian Müller (1), Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1), Joseph Wagner (6), and Giuseppe Zocchi (2). Table of contents bound in at the end, title restored. Contemporary marbled roan, gilt broders around the covers, gilt irons representing masks, horns of plenty and birds in the corners, spine ribbed and decorated, red morocco lettering-piece, red edges, restorations at the corners and spine. Contemporary binding.
390 x 594 mm.
First edition and first issue of this magnificent suite depicting the villas, gardens and animated landscapes of Tuscany.
Brunet, V, 1107; R.M. Mason, Giuseppe Zocchi, Florence: Libreria Editrice Fiorentina, 1981, “Le Edizione” B1; Moreni, II, 324-325.
A very fresh copy of this suite of engravings by Zocchi which completes his work on the views of Florence.
The plates depict Tuscan villas amidst the surrounding gardens and landscapes. The scenes are animated by human and animal activities, often tinged with humor.
A second edition was published by Giuseppe Bouchard in 1754 and a third by Bouchard in 1757.
« Giuseppe Zocchi was employed for the decoration in the palaces of Florence and its surroundings especially in the palaces of Serristori, Rimuceini and Gerini. The Gerinis were his patrons. During his travels he drew the most remarkable places of the regions he was crossing and these drawings were, later on, engraved and gathered in interesting typographical series… » E. Bénezit.
« Nel 1744, nel pieno sviluppo del “vedutismo”, che aveva soprattutto a Roma ea Venezia i suoi più originali é significativi rappresentanti, anche Firenze, con l’opera di Giuseppe Zocchi riproposta in queste pagine, ebbe l’occasione di offrire al pubblico di amatori e viaggiatori del Grand Tour la propria immagine. Questa venne fissata in una serie di moderne vedute che, net rispetto delta rigorosa tradizione artistica locale, mostrano un carattere lucidamente realistico e razionale tehendo, neIl’ambito più vasto del loro genere, al gusto per l’esattezza della visione e la precisione topografica piuttosto che al “capriccio” o ‘aIl’vocazione poetica dei Iuoghi raffigurati. Giuseppe Zocchi aveva manifestato fin da ragazzo un notevole talento artistico, tanto che non aveva ancora venticinque ann[i noi suo protettore, il marchese Gerini, gli commissionô le tavole su Firenze che noi oggi conosciamo ».
« Recorded in 1744, the views of Florence, beyond debt paid to the Roman and Venetian landscape painting, particularly Giuseppe Vasi and Michele Maneschi, contain an element of unquestionable originality in that realistic and descriptiveness which Zaman his boards lit up. Next to the urban planning and architectural reconstruction of his city, Zocchi tends to return the social atmosphere with an analytical section that depicts streets, squares and river, where next to carters, fishermen, merchants and peasants flow and noble ladies, carnages and prelates. »
Precious copy of this superb work dedicated to Tuscany in the middle of the eighteenth century, preserved in its contemporary binding.
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