Rome: Bouchard & Gravier Libraires ; Komarek. 1761;1763. Edition: First Edition. , Binding: Contemporary paper boards with recent half green morocco, expertly rebacked in matching style. Gilt rules on upper and lower. Spine with 5 raised bands. Bands with decorative gilt rolls. Decorative gilt fillet and motifs in compartments. Title in gilt on red label in 2. All edges red. , Notes: Text in French.
2 large folios in uniform binding. Rome Ancienne: (512x372 mm); Rome Moderne: (504x377 mm).

Jean Barbault (1718 – 1762) was a French painter, etcher and printmaker, who worked in Rome for most of his life. He is noted for paintings and etchings of Roman monuments and antiquities which were published in the two volumes here. In Rome he became a disciple of Piranesi.

Rome Ancienne describes the monuments depicted in the corresponding plates; “in these descriptions, Barbault not only references the work of historians like Pliny the Elder and Bernard de Montfaucon, but also other artists’ renderings of the same monuments, particularly those by Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Barbault had previously worked with Piranesi, contributing to 14 plates to Piranesi’s Antichità Romane (1756), and the two artists worked with the same publisher, Bouchard et Gravier.” He was thus one of the “few official collaborators” of Piranesi, who feared Barbault would become his rival “pasticheur.”

Rome Moderne was published posthumously, with plates designed by Barbault and mostly engraved by the artists Montagu, Giraud, and Freicenet. The plates are accompanied with detailed descriptions addressing the building’s construction, its history and founder, construction sequence, and artists involved with decorating the structures.
, Size: Folio, Illustration: Chapters with ornamental initials. Rome Moderne with 66 engravings in total, including 44 plates designed by Barbault, all double-page. Rome Ancienne with 128 engravings, including 73 numbered plates, 29 of which are full-page engravings. All engravings designed by Barbault and most sculpted by him as well; some sculpted by Dominico Montagu. Dedication to Jean François Joseph de Rochechouart, a French Roman Catholic cardinal of the 18th century. , Provenance: Ex-Libris Edward Francis Searles., References: Berlin Catalogue 2712; Millard IV, 14, Pages: Rome Ancienne: Blank (2). Half title. Blank. Title. Blank. Dedication (2). Preface (vii – viii). Blank. P. 1 – 88. Table (P. 89 – 90). Blank (2). Rome Moderne: Blank (2). Half title. Blank. Title. Blank. Advertisement. Printer’s Note. P. 1 – 69. Table (P. 71 – 72). Blank (2)., Category: Book Europe Italy; Book Art, Architecture & Design;. Fine examples. Some wear to boards. Scattered worming to some margins. Interior and plates clean and crisp. Item #B6728

Price: $26,000.00