FULVIO, Andrea

Opera di Andrea Fulvio dell antichita della Citta di Roma

      1543. FULVIO, Andrea. Opera di Andrea Fulvio dell antichita della Citta di Roma, & delli edificij memorabili di quella. Tradotta nuovamente di latino in lingua toscana, per Paulo dal Rosso cittadino Fiorentino. 224, [8] ff. Small 8vo., 155 x 110 mm, bound in later full vellum, title in manuscript on spine. Venezia: Michele Tramezino, 1543. |~||~||~||~||~| First Edition in the vernacular of this important, early history of the city of Rome, translated from Fulvio's Latin edition of 1513. Fulvio's account of Rome, the classical antiquities, the private collections and the buildings as they survived at the beginning of the 1500s, is of the greatest historical significance. Fulvio's observations are recorded by a humanist's critical eye. The descriptions of private collections in Rome include the antiquities collection of Angelo Colocci and the numismatic collection of Cardinal Andrea Della Valle. The work has also been cited as the first true antiquarian topography of Rome. "Fulvius published the work under the guidance and instigation of Raphael, who had been charged by Pope Leo X to undertake a pictorial reconstruction of Ancient Roma. Fulvio was a friend of Raphael, Blondus and Laetus." (Kissner Catalogue 153). Andrea Fulvio (1470 - 1527), a Renaissance humanist, poet and antiquarian of Rome, advised Raphael in the reconstructions of ancient Rome and as possible settings for his frescoes. Fulvio was Raphael's cicerone as they explored the ruins of Rome, Fulvio showing Raphael what was essential to be drawn and ex-temporising on them (cf: Bette Talvacchia, in Marcia B. Hall, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Raphael (Cambridge University Press) 2005:184). Very fine copy. PROVENANCE: Marchese Giuseppe Arconati Visconti (1797-1883) with his crowned oval stamp at foot of title-page. Visconti was the owner of the famed Lombardian villa Castelazzo, designed by the Italian architect Giovanni Ruggeri and possessing the largest and most elaborate landscape gardens in Lombardy. (See: Egisto Bragaglia, Gli ex libris italiani, # 1835). Manuscript initials "D.F.L." at foot of title page of volume one. Shelf mark on free end paper as follows: 77 D 26. "Cat. Imperiali 1.20" in manuscript on paste-down endpaper. Rossetti G-302 & 5155, G - 302; Graesse, II, 646; Adams, F-1154. Borroni 7914/4. Fossati Bellani 898. Schudt 599.