Scarce volume of hand-coloured plates

Mantova Benavides, Marco. Illustrium jureconsultorum imagines.

€ 28.000,00

First edition of this set of twenty-four hand-coloured plates of famous Italian lawyers of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, rarely found in their original form as a complete volume, rather than dispersed as individual plates. Published by Antoine Lafréry (1512-77) and likely engraved by Lafréry's friend and collaborator Enea Vico (1523-67), the etchings were based on a variety of models (likely including paintings, sculptures, and coins) in the collection of Marco Mantova Benavides (1498-1592), himself a respected lawyer and Renaissance law professor from Padua. Benavides's collection was dispersed after the creation of the plates, adding to the work's historical importance as a whole and complete piece.

A later edition, published in 1570, added a further 23 plates, though these were probably not by Vico, who had died a year after the first edition went to print. While Vico did not sign the plates, they are generally attributed to him on stylistic grounds, and based on previous collaboration between Vico, Benavides, and Lafréry: Benavides, an avid art collector, had commissioned a drawing from Vico, and Lafréry later published it as a print.

Quite uncommon, especially complete, with only seven copies of the full 1566 edition held in institutions worldwide, including the BNF, the Wellcome Collection, and Yale.