Descrizione

BICCHIERAI, ALESSANDRO – Dei bagni di Montecatini. Trattato. Florence, Gaetano Cambiagi, 1788. (together with:) PAOLETTI, Niccolo Gasparo – Raccolta dei Disegni delle Fabbriche regie de’Bagni di Montecatini nella Valdinievole. Florence, 1787.

Two volumes; the volume of text in 4to (295×210 mm.) and the volume of plates in Atlantic folio (625×405 mm.), both volumes in contemporary half vellum, greenish in the plate volume, with corners, and marbled paper on boards; both volumes very clean, with full margins, and deckle edges, printed on laid paper, both in great condition. Volume of text: engraved vignette on title, pp. (8), 347, with a finely engraved double-page bird-eye’s view of Montecatini’s spa buildings; between pp. 232-233 a folding printed table showing the content in minerals of the water springs of that area (Tettuccio, Terma Leopoldina, Bagno Mediceo, Bagno Regio); between pp. 240-241 an engraved folding plan of the buildings, and at the end a quadruple folding engraved general map of Montecatini area and spas (520×745 mm.). Volume of plates: a beautiful engraved frontispiece, 3 ff.. of text and 15 double-page engraved plates showing all the plans, elevations and sections of the buildings, including the beautiful bird-eye view, practically a much-enlarged version of the one held in the text volume; this plate is not numbered, not bound and inserted loose, with margins a bit smaller.

First edition – rare when accompanied as here by the frequently missing volume of plates, separately edited – of the first systematic illustrations of the spas of Montecatini (at west of Florence), projected and built between 1774 and 1778 by Niccolo Gasparo Paoletti (1727-1813) for the Grand Duke of Tuscany Peter Leopold. The text explains the medical applications of the waters, and the volume of plates provides a magnificent architectural record of the new buildings attached to the thermal resort. The 14 plates give a very detailed account of the setting, cross-sections, façades and internal layouts of the buildings, and of the engineering network and lead pipes conducting the waters to the baths. Among the privileged destinations of the Grand Tour in Italy was Tuscany, a land where travellers loved to stop for a long time or at least which they crossed calmly on the outward journeys to Rome; obviously the famous thermal baths of Montecatini were a pleasant place to rest and take advantage of the beneficial influence of the thermal waters, always appreciated by travellers. Lozzi, I, 2906; Razzolini, 62; Platneriana, 217; Moreni, I, 125; Fossati Bellani, II, 3366; Olschki, 20746; Berlin Kat. 2731.