Salazaro, Demetrio
Studi sui monumenti della Italia meridionale dal IVo. al XIIIo. secolo. Parte prima; parte seconda (with) L’arte Romana al medio evo, Appendice agli Studi sui monumenti della Italia meridionale.
Napoli, 1871, 1877, 1881 (but final part still in production at October 1886).
Full Description
Elephant folio. 3 parts in 2 vols (first volume contains Studi, parts I & II, second volume the L’Arte Romana appendix). (4) + 69 + (3)pp, 24 plates (of which 14 are chromolitho, rest actual mounted photographs); (2) + 69 + (1)pp, 24 plates (of which 12 are chromolitho, rest actual mounted photo plates); (6) + 43 + (3)pp, 16 plates (of which 8 are chromolitho, the rest actual mounted photo plates). Publisher’s full vellum, the covers decorated with coloured red lettering surrounded by red borders (bindings a little soiled, with some of the original colouring displaced). Late nineteenth century bookplates of Frederick A(ugustus) Wood, Chew Magna, Somerset (c.1822-1904, a local Somerset antiquary).
These mighty volumes represent the magnum opus of Demetrio Salazaro (1822-1882), a senior employee of the Museo Nazionale in Naples, who was the first scholar in modern times to investigate the early medieval art and architecture of Southern Italy and Sicily. The volumes use chromolitho plates to illustrate surviving mosaics and mural paintings in the principal medieval church buildings in the region, and, unusually for a book of which publication had commenced by 1871, actual mounted photographs to illustrate sculptures, carved ornament, and, in some cases, the interiors and exteriors of the church buildings featured. All the parts come with quite extensive accompanying text, the first part being devoted to cathedrals, monasteries and churches in Naples, Amalfi, Salerno, Capua and other places in Campania, the second part to similar buildings in Apulia, Calabria and Sicily (these including the cathedrals at Palermo and Monreale), and the final part, the “Appendice”, to selected buildings of similar date in Rome and Orvieto. Although this final part carries the date 1881 on its title leaf, it contains a tribute to Salazaro by his friend Giulio Minervini, dated 10 October 1886, by which time Salazaro was long dead, and it seems likely that this part and its predecessors were issued in instalments over significant periods of time. Prospective purchasers should be aware that the volumes are large and heavy, weighing together about 16 kilos.