Descrizione

ROSSINI, LUIGI (1790-1857) – Raccolta di cinquanta principali vedute di antichità, tratte dai scavi fatti in Roma in questi ultimi tempi, disegnate ed incise all’acqua forte da Luigi Rossini Architetto. Rome, Giovanni Scudellari in Via condotti, 1818.

Oblong folio (325×440 mm.), almost contemporary boards covered with marbled paper, spine recently covered in bleu cloth, internally clean and well-preserved, with plates in bright impression. Engraved tile and 50 engraved plates.

Second, but enlarged edition of Rossini’s rare debut work, a beautiful series of Roman ‘vedute’, much influenced by Piranesi. The young Rossini, after having completed his architectural studies at the Accademia di S. Luca under the supervision of Canova, realized he could not count on his family for his maintenance and, short of commissions as an architect, decided to put his skills in the field of engraving to good use where he immediately obtained success and for which he is still considered one of the main artists in Rome in the early 19th century. A first edition containing 40 plates appeared the year before (1817) and was still untitled; the present edition contains 10 additional views. Thieme/B. XXIX, 76; British Arch. Libr. 2847; UCBA II, 1778; Rossetti 8930; Pirazzoli, Luigi Rossini 1790-1857, pp. 147 ff.; Graesse VI, 170. not in Berlin Kat