Descrizione

ZOCCHI, GIUSEPPE (1711 or 1717-1767) – Vedute delle ville e d’altri luoghi della Toscana.

Florence: Giuseppe Allegrini, 1744.

Obl. Folio (402 x 610 mm.), contemporary vellum, a fine, fresh copy with wide margins, printed on thick paper. Engraved frontispiece and 50 engraved plates, each with captions explaining the name of the villa; at the end a printed leaf bearing the index (small marginal tear repaired to one plate), 19th cent. armorial bookplate on pastedown, a stamp in red of a collection at inner corner of front., and a bookseller’s label.
First edition of this magnificent collection of views of Tuscan villas and the related gardens, very important for the history of Italian architecture, and indeed one of the most significant Tuscan books of the 18th century. The work was commissioned by the Marquis Andrea Gerini (1691-1766) to celebrate the beauties of Tuscany following the example of Venetian works by Canaletto, Visentini and Marieschi, who had reached a great popularity in those years. Giuseppe Zocchi (Florence 1711-1767) made the drawings for the plates, then engraved by several famous artists, such as GB Piranesi, M. Marieschi, G. Giampiccoli, G. Wagner, P. Monaco, F. Morghen, G. Filosi and others. “The principal etchers of the Vedute delle ville were Giuseppe Benedetti, Pietro Monaco, Filippo Morghen and Joseph Wagner. Among the better-known contributors to the series were the Venetians Michele Marieschi (1696-1743), who in 1741 published his own series of views of Venice, and Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778). “The ‘Ville’ print series is an architectural history of these buildings, defining the representation and self-fashioning of a building type. In contrast with the villas of the Veneto, it is astonishing how few of the elements of classical architecture, such as porticoes, columns, pediments, or parapets with statues, are in use” (Millard). Berlin Katalog 2701; Millard, italian books 169. R.M. Mason, Giuseppe Zocchi, Firenze 1981. Hind, Piranesi 75.