Le dodici gemme dell'antico Efod sacerdotale e le virtù in esse simboleggiate e riscontrate . . .da Monsignor Federico Maria. Giovanelli Patriarca in Venezia e primate della Dalmazia. Poesie per il suo solenne ingresso

Folio.  355 x 250 mm., [14 x 9 ¾ inches].  [2], lvii pp.  Illustrated with a full-page engraved portrait of Giovanelli, engraved title-page with ornamental border, large cartouche signed "Wagner", six engraved tailpieces and a full-page engraving on the final leaf.  Bound in contemporary Venetian paste-paper boards, decorated paper covers with the coat-of-arm of Cardinal Giovanelli on both boards; paper covers showing some rubbing at the edges and spine; strange water stain to front free endpaper but nowhere else does this light stain appear. Very nice copy printed on very good paper, with wide margins.

This gratulatorio is illustrated with beautifully designed and crafted engravings from the shop of Giuseppe Wagner (1706-1780), a German artist who studied painting and engraving in Venice, Rome Paris, and London.  Wagner became part of the coterie of the most skilled engravers of the period and set up a highly regarded school of engraving in Venice in the 1760's that became a center for the trade in that city.  His was a transitional style of engraving that blended baroque and rococo taste that resulted in a deep tones and soft flourishes.  His engravings produced for this festival book reflect his Venetian training and mid-century taste for vignettes of pastoral scenes, putti, and young women of virtue.  The full-page portrait of Giovanelli is sensitively rendered and the final full-page engraving of the 'chronicler and his muse' demonstrates his light touch adding some etched lines to create detail and emphasis, an innovation that was copied by many of his peers.  Wagner's students included Francesco Bartolozzi and Giovanni Volpato.

This festival book documents the celebration of Federico Maria Giovanelli's (1728-1800) election as Patriarch of Venice in 1776.  From a wealthy Bergamo family, Giovanelli's visit to his home town was a highly anticipated and the quality of this publication is a testament to the esteem in which he was held by other noble families of Bergamo.  With poems by Lorenzo Mascheroni, Abbate Giuseppe Pasta, Bernardino Sarazetti, Gio. Battista Ghidini, the Arcadian Egiro Pallenio,  Antonio Gavazzeni, all member of the Accademia degli Eccitati of Bergamo and colleagues of Giovanelli.

Giovanelli's family made its fortune manufacturing silk in Bergamo and its ownership of mines in Austria.  The family was recognized by the Holy Roman Emperor and in 1688 the family was elected to the Venetian Patriarchy.  Federico was educated by the Jesuits he became well known as a young man for his piety, a quality of character which was to serve him well throughout his career.  Through family connections he was made Bishop of Chioggia in 1773 and became a confidant of Pope Clement XIII.  His tenure as Bishop of Chioggia was highly successful as he was engaged as the leader of the diocese and used his personal wealth for the benefit of the local clergy and parishioners.  In 1776 he was elected as Patriarch of Venice.  He conducted his ministry in Venice with both zeal and devotion and in 1797 was involved in negotiations on behalf of the Church which brought an end to the Republic of Venice and establishment of French then Austrian control over the city.  He died in Venice in 1800.

Rare: OCLC cites at Biblioteca Comunale di Trento, and the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp only; no copy in the United States. 

Arthur Hind.  A History of Engraving and Etching, p. 208.  Alberta Pettoello, Libri Illustrati Veneziani del Settecento, p. 5 note.  G. Morazzoni, Il libro illustrato Veneziano del settecento,  p. 114-115.  Michela Dal Borgo - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 55 (2001).