RIPA, Cesare (1560-1645)

[Emblem Book] Iconologia di Cesare Ripa ... Divisa in tre libri, ne i quali si esprimono varie imagini di virtù, vitij, passioni humane, affetti, atti, discipline, humori, elementi, corpi celesti, prouincie d'Italia, fiumi, & altre materie infinite vtili ad ogni stato di persone. Ampliata dal Sig. cav. Gio. Zaratino Castellini Romano in questa vltima editione di imagini, & discorsi, con indici copiosi, & ricorretta

In Venetia [Venice]: Appresso Nicolò Pezzana, [1669]. Early Printing. Quarter-Vellum. An early edition of the most famous catalog of emblems and symbols collected from antique literature and translated into pictorial terms for the use of visual artists, influencing, among others, Vermeer. 4to (210 x 148mm): [58],686pp (numerous page-numbering errors), with title-page vignette and 354 quarter-page woodcut illustrations in the text. Modern quarter vellum over paste-paper boards to style by Fitterer (a truly stunning binding), all edges stained red. Praz, p. 472-73. Landwehr (FISP) 630. Graesse VI, 129 (for the monumental, five-volume Perugia edition of 1764-67). Fine. Item #BB1638

The first edition of his Iconologia was published, without illustrations, in 1593, then a second edition with 151 woodcuts, in Rome, in 1603, Following were numerous editions and translations, with a rich array of illustrations that widely influenced the visual arts during the the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. (Ours is a reissue of the Padua edition of 1630, with more woodcuts than any edition we can locate.) In particular, the Iconologia influenced the painter Pietro da Cortona and his followers as well as such Dutch artists as Gerard de Lairesse and Willem van Mieris. Vermeer used the emblem for the muse Clio for his The Art of Painting and several others in his The Allegory of Faith." Ripa was a scholar and man of letters from Perugia, who spent much of his life in Rome in the service of Cardinal Montelparo and then the Salviati family. N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).

Price: $1,999.00