PITTURE DI ANTONIO ALLEGRI DETTO IL CORREGGIO ESISTENTI IN PARMA NEL MONISTERO DI SAN PAOLO

Parma, Italy: Nel Regal Palazzo, Co' Tipi Bodoniani (Bodoni for Regal Palazzo), 1800. quarter leather over decorated paper covered boards. Bodoni, Giambattista. folio. quarter leather over decorated paper covered boards. 8, xxvii; 14, xliii; 11, xxxiii pages, followed by 35 plates, one folding. First folio edition, which was considered the sumptuous deluxe edition in folio, with the text printed in three parts: Italian (by De Rossi), French (by De Lama), and Spanish (by Baroni and Arteaga). Recorded by Giani as "rarissima e preziose" and was limited to 200 copies. French title PEINTURES D'ANTONIO ALLEGRI SURNOMMÉ LE CORREGE QUI EXISTENT A PARME DANS LE COUVENT DE SAINT PAUL (A Parme Dans Le Palais Royal, Avec Les Caracteres de Bodoni). Brooks 775; Lester, pp. 133-134. Top corners bumped. Exlibris bookplate on front pastedown. Very light spotting and foxing to interior pages, else a fine copy of this spectacular production from one of the most famed Italian printers of the 18th/19th centuries.



Contains thirty-five engraved plates reproducing frescoes by the famed Renaissance painter Correggio executed in 1519 at the Monastero de San Paolo in Parma. Folding engraved plate showing placement of frescos. The engravings were done by Francesco Rosaspina after the Portuguese artist Francisco Vieira. Dedicated to the recently married Louis of Bourbon-Parma and the Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain. Although the Duke of Parma first approved the project in 1790, the artists were not allowed into the Camera di San Paolo until 1795. They spent one full day in the room recording the frescoes. The drawings were to have been sent to Rome for engraving by Raffaello Sanzio Morghen. Much to the dissatisfaction of Bodoni's patron, Morghen could not take on the project. Bodoni instead selected his friend Francesco Rosaspina, who had been one of the artists allowed into the Camera in 1795. Despite the disparaging comments of his patron, Bodoni's choice was a wise one- the finished result is beautiful. One of Bodoni's most sophisticated and exceptional works.



Robert Hoe apparently had two copies of the book: one was sold in his sale part IV, 11 November 1912, lot 825 bound in half calf, later sold at Swann Galleries, 16 April 1998, lot 28.