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Summary
Author: Bellori, Gio.Petro
Title: Descrizzione delle imagini dipinte da Rafaelle d'Urbino nelle camere del Palazzo Apostolico Vaticano.
Publication: Roma, Gio.Giacomo Komarek 1695.
Price: £740
Reference: 08813
Full Description
Folio. Engraved portrait frontispiece, (6) + (114)pp (numbered 1-112, with two unnumbered pages between p.63 and p.64), engraved headpieces and initials in text, also engraved vignette on title leaf. Contemporary full vellum. From the library of Martin Bowes (1670-1726), with his ink ownership inscription and his larger-size engraved armorial bookplate. Occasional slight browning due to quality of paper stock, but a good copy.
First edition of the Roman scholar G.P. Bellori's admirably thorough description of the famous series of paintings by Raphael in the papal apartments in the Vatican Palace. It also provides a full description of Raphael's paintings for the loggia of Psyche in the Villa Farnesina, and an interesting account of the restoration by G .F. Rossi, under the supervision of Carlo Maratta, of Annibale Caracci's cycle of frescoes in the gallery of the Palazzo Farnese. The last eight pages print the speech which Bellori delivered at the annual prize-giving ceremony of the Accademia di San Luca in Rome in 1677, celebrating the esteem in which artists such as Giotto, Gentile Bellini, Titian and Rubens were held by kings or popes (is this the first printing of Bellori’s speech ?). Cicognara 3369.