Owned by Prince Alfons of Bavaria

Fontana, Carlo. Il tempio Vaticano e sua origine. / Templum Vaticanum et ipsius origo.

€ 18,000.00

First edition of this lavishly produced publication on the Vatican, with Latin and Italian parallel text in two columns. Illustrated by Alessandro Specchi after drawings by Carlo Fontana. "His principal work, uniting his technical and his historical studies. In the same work Fontana also publishes a project for expanding St Peter's Square, a plan revisited in the late 18th century of Cosimo Morelli" (cf. Thieme/B.). "Book III treats of the Vatican obelisk, the plates being copied from those of Domenico Fontana's publication of 1590. The last book contains short descriptions of the Pantheon, several Roman temples and the Cathedral of Florence" (Fowler).

A few chafemarks to the binding have been professionally restored. The plates on pp. 205, 419, and 421 (ground plans) and pp. 423 and 425 (cross-sections) are printed from trimmed copper plates, corresponding entirely with the digitized copy in Heidelberg's University Library. The plates on pp. 205 and 381 show a few small wormholes; a few minor, rebacked edge flaws; lightly browned or stained in places. Without the portrait that was bound with only a very few copies. From the library of Prince Alfons of Bavaria (1862-1933) with his stamp to the title-page.