Topography of Rome and of Italy
Topographia Italiae.
Folio (322 x 202 mm). 2 pts. in one volume. Engraved additional title page and 53 double-page plates, maps, and plans (a few folding).
(Bound with) II: Boissard, J. J. Topographia urbis Romae. Ibid., 1681. With 100 engraved plates (instead of 101; lacking final plate; including 2 double-page) and plate list at end. Contemporary calf with attractively gilt spine.
€ 16,500.00
I: First edition, complete with introduction and supplement. "It is not without justification that this book is counted among the finest products of Merian's publishing house, and as one of the best works on Italy" (cf. Wüthrich). With the splendid, large-sized views of Rome and Venice, as well as views of Bologna, Ferrara, Florence, Genua, Lucca, Mantua, Milan, Messina, Naples (including the Phlegrean Fields and the Solfatara), Padua, Palermo, Siena, Turin, La Valetta, and Verona. The appendix on Greece shows Koroni, Dubrovnik, Euboea, and Lefkada.
Bound with (II): first edition of Boissard's condensed topography of Rome, almost never encountered complete, here lacking a single inscription plate (the final no. 101; included in facsimile): a guidebook in four itineraries, offering the principal chapter of the first part of Boissard's monumental six-volume "Romanae urbis topographia" (first published separately in German in 1603). The illustrations are printed from the original copper plates, including two folding bird's eye views, Castel Sant'Angelo, the Pyramid of Cestius, the Vatican Obelisk, the Tiber Island, Circus Maximus, and especially statues, reliefs, sarcophagi, and several inscriptions.
Both works in fine condition, with occasional abrasions or adhesions (very slight surface loss), a few very minor tears or repairs. Lacking free endpapers; binding insignificantly rubbed; slight split to upper joint. Tightly bound; stamp of the noble library of the counts of Schlieffen-Schwandt, Mecklenburg, on the Merian title-page.
I: VD 17, 12:647868G. Wüthrich IV, 81-82. Bircher, B 7479-7481.
II: VD 17, 12:642970M. Wüthrich IV, 77. Schuchard 101.A = W. 79.
