Mitelli, Agostino

All'Ill. Sig. Francesco Maria Zambeccari Come a Suo Singolar. Mo Padrone Agostino Mitelli D.D.D.

      Bologna (Ag. o Parisini For, 1636. 24 unnumbered etched plates, loose as issued, printed on buff-colored paper (watermarked with a paschal lamb in a circle surmounted by the initial A). 250 x 170 mm. (ca. 9 7/8 x 6 5/8 inches). Sm. 4to. Portfolio (modern gilt boards, 1/4 red morocco). This untitled suite of exuberant, often fantastical, decorative cartouches and other ornaments is one of four sets of prints by Agostino Mitelli (1606-1660), the renowned Bolognese quadratura painter, father of Giuseppe Maria Mitelli. Dated 1636, dedicated to Count Zambeccari, and printed and/or published by Agostino Parisini, it is known in several editions or issues. In one, the title-page was reworked with the ?inscription Rousel exc. ?; in another, with the name of Giovan Batista Paganelli, D.D. and a new dedication to Francesco Bandini. In the present copy, as in the set in the Victoria and Albert, one plate was reworked as a title-page in honor of the marriage of the Duke Paolo Spinola to the Princes Anna Colonna, and bears the date Perugia 1653; the arms of the two families are engraved on the tilted cartouches at top. The title-page also carries the credit, in the architrave below the dedication, ?Gio. Jacomo Rossi formis Romae alla Pace, all insegna di Parigi. ? The watermark is not in Briquet. Intermittent foxing and occasional light soiling; one plate with a clean tear at one corner, with old mend; a few light touches in pencil; nice impressions.