Scvdiero di varii disegni dArme e targhe fatto a benefitio publico per il scvltori pittori e intagl.ri inuentate dal cav.re Bernard.no Radi
- Subjects
- Architectural books - Early works to 1800
- Architecture, Italian - Radi (Bernardino), 1581-1643
- Book illustration - Pattern books - Early works to 1800
- Drawings - Artists, Italian - Mitelli (Agostino), 1609-1660
- Authors/Creators
- Radi, Bernardino, 1581-1643
- Artists/Illustrators
- Mitelli, Agostino, 1609-1660
- Radi, Bernardino, 1581-1643
- Owners
- Biblioteca Banzi, 18th century
- Pasquè, Felice, 1900-c. 1985
- Vershbow, Arthur, 1922-2012
- Vershbow, Charlotte, 1924-2000
- Other names
- Medici, Giovan Carlo de', 1611-1663
Radi, Bernardino
Cortona 1581 – 1643 Rome
Scvdiero di varii disegni dArme e targhe fatto a benefitio publico per il scvltori pittori e intagl.ri inuentate dal cav.re Bernard.no Radi.
Florence 1636
folio (407 × 285 mm), suite of 42 etchings, comprising (1) title-plate with the artist’s oval self-portrait in a cartouche, (2) dedication plate (‘Al Ser.mo Il. Sig.re Principe | Gio. Carlo di Toscano mio Sig.re’, subscribed by Radi ‘Di Fiorenza xv Settembre 1636’), and (3–42) forty unnumbered plates, signed C. Bernardino Radi inu (or variation thereof), fine impressions with plate tone and wiping marks, all with wide margins (matrices c. 282 × 190 mm, sheets 407 × 285 mm).
paper Rampant lion in an oval, with coronet above; Cross in oval, under a coronet.
with two drawings in pen and brown ink, by Agostino (Stanzani) Mitelli (1609–1660), mounted on two leaves tipped-in at end (see below).
condition some sheets stained and foxed, but overall in good state of preservation. Early foliation (21–62, errors and omissions) in upper margin. Binding rebacked.
provenance Biblioteca Banzi, exlibris (shelfmark in ink: E x | 18) — [Felice Pasquè, architect of Milan (1900–c. 1985), with his ink stamp (Lugt 3771) on the two drawings] — Libreria Antiquaria Il Polifilo, Milan — Marlborough Rare Books, London — Arthur (1922–2012) & Charlotte Vershbow (1924–2000), exlibris, and purchase note [19]85–68–1 — Christie’s, ‘The Collection of Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow. Part Three: The Baroque and Rococo Periods’, New York, 20 June 2013, lot 666
binding 19th-century half-leather, red marbled sheet edges.
A suite of etched designs of escutcheons and cartouches destined for coats of arms, intended to provide sculptors, painters, and engravers, with models and ideas. They are reminiscent of Bernini, and anticipate certain models of Pietro da Cortona and Francesco Borromini.1
Apprenticed in Cortona with his father Mariotto Radi (1563–1624), a sculptor and capo mastro, Bernardino travelled to Rome with his elder brother Agostino, and from 1611 was employed by Scipione Borghese carving fountains, portals, and ornaments (opera di scarpello) in the palazzo and gardens on Montecavallo. In 1614, Agostino married Giuditta Bernini, daughter of Pietro and sister of Gian Lorenzo, and afterwards he and Bernardino became ‘collaboratori fissi dei cantieri berniniani’, executing balustrades, fountains, and architectural ornaments in the gardens of the Belvedere, Borgo, Montecavallo, and Villa Pinciana.2 In April 1622, the brothers collaborated on the tomb of Paul v in Santa Maria Maggiore; shortly afterward, they parted company: Agostino continued working in Rome as a sculptor, while Bernardino devoted himself more to architectural projects, initially as ‘soprintendente delle fabbriche’ of the port and fortress at Civitavecchia (1624–1626), then in Cortona (1629), and afterwards in Florence.
Bernardino’s activities in Florence include work on the twin fountains in Piazza SS. Annunziata, a project for the façade of the Duomo, an aqueduct to control the Mungone river, the front façade of the Palazzo of the Padri delle Missioni in Piazza Frescobaldi, the cloister of the Canonici Regolari di Sant’Jacopo sopr’Arno, and the church of SS. Cristina e Agostino (completed after his death by Gherardo Silvani).3
In Rome, Bernardino had expressed his passion for designing decorative architectural ornaments in two collections of prints, designs for funerary monuments and for doorways, both published in 1619, dedicated respectively to his patrons Stefano Pignatelli4 and Scipione Borghese.5 In Florence, in 1636, he published the present collection of etched designs, dedicated to Cardinal Gian Carlo de’ Medici, second son of Grand Duke Cosimo ii of Tuscany. The plates are models for escutcheons adorning buildings and monuments; many are embellished with ecclesiastical insignia; all are blank, with the exception of the first which displays the Medici coat of arms (sei palle). A selection of the plates was copied by Hierosme (or Jérôme) David (c. 1600–after 1670), and published in Rome by Calisto Ferrante, in 1649.6
Provisional census
● Berlin, Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, os 561 (lost 1939–1945)7 ● Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, V.5342 (19 plates)8 ● Florence, Biblioteca nazionale centrale, magl 1.4.151 (41 plates)9 ● Leiden, Universiteit, Bibliotheca Thysiana, Thysia 145:12 (43 plates)10 ● London, Victoria & Albert Museum, 27833:1–8 (8 plates)11 ● Lucera (Foggia), Biblioteca comunale Ruggero Bonghi, Dep 26 8 1512 ● Modena, Biblioteca estense universitaria, Alfa A.4.19/313 ● New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Elisha Whittelsey Collection, 1948.14514 ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, H d 46 (incomplete?)15 ● Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art, collections Jacques Doucet, Fol Res 615 (37 plates, without title)16 ● Parma, Biblioteca Palatina, AAA III.23563 117 ● Rio de Janeiro, Biblioteca Nacional, Arm. 11.1.3 Iconografia (43 plates)18 ● Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, Rar: 161 E b Fol. (43 plates)19 ● Unlocated (Elsevier shop catalogues)20
references Martin Lipenius, Bibliotheca realis philosophica omnium materiarum rerum et titularum (Frankfurt am Main 1682), p.642; Mariano D’Ayala, Bibliografia militare-italiana antica e moderna (Turin 1854), p.115; Rudolf Berliner, Ornamentale Vorlage-Blätter des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig 1925–1926), iii, p.69 (as title and 36 plates)
Bound with
Mitelli, Agostino (Stanzani)
Battidizzo (Bologna) 1609 – 1660 Madrid
Two drawings in pen and brown ink:
[a] Design for a symmetrical cartouche decorated in its upper half with a shell, a mask, and a row of beads, and below with a festoon hanging from a mask, and fruit, 240 × 164 mm, cut and pasted to album sheet
[b] Design for a symmetrical cartouche decorated with scrolls, grotesque marks and festoons, set against a drapery, with a tassel hanging on either side, 240 × 170 mm, cut and pasted to album sheet
provenance Felice Pasquè, architect of Milan (1900–c.1985), with his stamp (Lugt 3771; image) on each drawing
Numerous minor losses in drawings owing to ink corrosion.
Inserted at the end of the volume by a recent owner are two drawings associated with a series of twenty-four etchings of decorative cartouches and ornaments, designed and probably also etched by Agostino Mitelli, and published at Bologna by Agostino Parisini with a dedication to Francesco Maria Zambeccari, in 1636.21 This was Agostino Mitelli’s first series of prints, issued before he left Bologna for Florence, where he was engaged from 1637–1641 in decorating three rooms of the Palazzo Pitti. The sequence of editions suggests strong appetite for Mitelli’s designs; their influence still awaits investigation.22
The original matrices were restruck at Rome by Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi, and his heirs, from about 1648 until after 1735;23 an edition jointly by De Rossi and Sebastiano Zecchini of Perugia appeared in 1653 as an epithalamium for Anna Colonna, married in Rome on 24 February to Don Paolo Vincenzo Spinola.24 A set of exact copies was made in Paris and distributed there by Claude Roussel, Pierre Mariette, and later Gabriel Huquier.25 Meanwhile, a complete set of copies, in reverse, dedicated to Francesco Bandini by Giambattista Paganelli, was distributed in Bologna.26
Plate from edition Bologna, Parisini, 163627 (same direction as our drawing)
Other drawings associated with this print series are in Kassel31 and New York.32
1. Francesco Quinterio, ‘I maestri berniniani di provenienza toscana’ in Bernini e la Toscana: da Michelangelo al barocco mediceo e al neocinquecentesimo, edited by Oronzo Brunetti (Rome 2002), p.106: ‘…le sue targhe e suoi scudi anticipano certi modelli cortoneschi e borrominiani’; p.111: ‘…esagerazioni stravaganti sulla moda del Bernini’. Cf. Carlo Cresti, L’architettura del Seicento a Firenze (Rome 1990), p.152; Paolo Portoghesi, Roma barocca, second edition (Rome 1973), p.120, on the influence of Radi’s models in Florence and Rome.
2. Alberta Campitelli, ‘Agostino e Bernardino Radi: due protagonisti dei cantieri berniniani’ in Bernini dai Borghese ai Barberini: la cultura a Roma intorno agli anni venti, edited by Olivier Bonfait and Anna Coliva (Rome 2004), pp.105–117 (quotation p.107).
3. Girolamo Mancini, Il contributo dei cortonesi alla cultura italiana (Florence 1898), p.67; Quinterio, op. cit., pp.106, 111. For details of the brothers’ domestic arrangements in Rome (and Agostino’s marriage, on 9 February 1614), see Marcello del Piazzo, Ragguagli borrominiani: mostra documentaria, catalogue of an exhibition in the Archivio di Stato di Roma (Rome 1980), pp.308, 342.
4. Disegni varii di depositi o sepulcri inventati da Bernardino Radi da Cortona (Rome 1619); reprinted as Varie inventioni per depositi (Rome 1625). Cf. Aloisio Antinori, Scipione Borghese e l’architettura (Rome 1995), pp.127–128 note 235 (dedication transcribed); Mitchell’s choice: highlights from 20 years of acquisitions for Avery Library, catalogue of an exhibition, 11 October–27 November 1991, by Herbert Mitchell (New York 1991), p.14 no. 4.4. A previous edition, reputedly ‘in Roma: appresso Godifredo de Scaichi [Gottfried van Schaych], 1618’, has not been confirmed by the writer.
5. Vari disegni de architettura ornata de porte inventati da Bernardino Radi (Rome 1619). Cf. Antinori, op. cit., p.128 note 235 (dedication transcribed); Campitelli, op. cit., pp.108 figs. 6–9, 110. Presentation copies of these publications were in Carlo Maderno’s private library (Howard Hibbard, Carlo Maderno and Roman architecture, London 1971, pp.98, 103).
6. Disegni varii di cartelle del cavalier Bernardino Radi da Cortona date in luce da Calisto Ferrante, 1649 ● Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, S. IV. 29406–29434 (29 plates, including title); Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Catalogue des estampes d’ornement, compiled by Henri Hymans (Brussels 1907), p.114 ● New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1947.79.1 ● Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art, collections Jacques Doucet, 4 Est 355 (5 prints, signed ‘Bernardinus Radij Inv Hier David Sculp’) ● Salzburg, Universitätsbibliothek, Grafiken, G 370 II (27 plates; opac). Désiré Guilmard, Les Maîtres ornemanistes (Paris 1880–1881), ii, p.317 no. 34.
7. Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek, Berlin (Berlin 1939), no. 561.
8. Hymans, op. cit., p.113.
9. Local opac; images (four plates only): ‘[41] c. La filigrana si trova in posizione irregolare in alto a destra su una delle due metà del foglio’.
10. Local opac. Provenance: ex-Johannes Thysius (1622–1653); Catalogus der bibliotheck van Joannes Thysius (Leiden 1879), p.317.
11. Collection database; title, dedication, and six designs (trimmed to platemarks).
13. Cited Gabinetto delle stampe A. Davoli, La raccolta di stampe Angelo Davoli: catalogo generale. Volume settimo: Ni-Ra, compiled by Zeno Davoli and Chiara Panizzi (Reggio Emilia 2008), p.410.
15. Provenance: ex-Michel de Marolles (1600–1681); his Catalogue de livres d’estampes et de figures en taille douce (Paris 1666), p.110: ‘ccvii. Moresques, grotesques, cartouches, quadres… Le Chevalier Bernardino Radi à Florence 1636’; Guilmard, op. cit., ii, p.317 no. 34: ‘Une suite de trente-six pièces, plus le titre… — On trouve aussi ces pièces et le titre à la Biblioth. de Paris, dans le Livre des Cartouches, H d. 46’; Henri Bouchot, Le Cabinet des estampes de la Bibliothèque nationale: guide du lecteur et du visiteur, catalogue général et raisonné des collections qui y sont conservées (Paris [1895]), p.142: ‘46. Recueil provenant de l’abbé de Marolles, ayant conservé la reliure royale du xviie siècle, et contenant des cartouches gravés par divers maîtres’.
18. Local opac. Provenance: ex-Dom João vi, King of Portugal (1767–1826) and Royal Library, Carimbo; Anais da Biblioteca Nacional 105 (1985), p.129 no. 1369.
19. Local opac. Provenance: Charles de Saint Maur, duke Montausier (1610–1690) & Julie d’Angennes (1607–1671) — Adam Horn (1717–1778).
20. Catalogus librorum qui in bibliopolio Danielis Elsevirii venales extant (Amsterdam 1674), ‘Delli Libri italiani’, p.18: ‘Scudiero di varii disegni d’Arme e targhe di Bernardino Radi. fol. Firenza. 1636’; also offered in the Elsevier shop catalogue of 1681.
21. ‘All’ Ill.mo Sig:r Fran:co Maria Zambeccari Come a’ Suo Singolar.mo P[ad]rone Agost:o Mitelli D.D.D. 1636 A.go Parisini For. Bologna’ ● Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, RP-P-1964-2183 to 2205 (Peter Fuhring, Ornament prints in the Rijksmuseum. ii: The seventeenth century, Amsterdam 2004, i, pp.204–206 nos. 1115–1137 (23 plates) ● Berlin, Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, os 1970.3 (24 plates; replaces os 562, lost 1939–1945) ● Bologna, Biblioteca Comunale dell’ Archiginnasio, Cartella Mitelli, n. 89–112 (24 plates) ● Rome, Biblioteca Casanatense, 20 B I.88 91–117 (24 plates, with others) ● Washington, dc, Library of Congress, nk 1535 .M5 (18 plates) ● Reggio Emilia, Biblioteca Panizzi, Gabinetto delle stampe ‘Angelo Davoli’, Inventario 9686–9688, 9695 (3 plates).
22. Agostino Mitelli drawings: loan exhibition from the Kunstbibliothek, Berlin 31 March–30 April 1965, by Ebria Feinblatt (Los Angeles 1965), p.78: ‘Mitelli’s cartouche prints unquestionably had widespread influence which has not yet been charted’.
23. Added publication line on title-plate ‘Gio. Jacomo Rossi formis Romae alla Pace all insigna di Parigi’ (date ‘1636’ retained) ● London, British Museum, 1874,0808.709 (catalogue). See Anna Grelle Iusco, Indice delle stampe de’ Rossi: Contributo alla storia di una Stamperia romana (Rome 1996), pp.320–323, p.494. Until 1714 a suite 24 prints was offered, thereafter 20 only.
24. Lettering added in one of the cartouches: I Giochi dello scacco e del corso per le nozze degl’ Illuss. et Eccellentiss. Signori D. Paolo Spinola Duca del Sesto e la Principessa D. Anna Colonna. Epitalamio di Giacomo Calvi Dottor di Leggi et Accademico Affidato. In Perugia nella Stampa Camerale appresso Sebastiano Zecchini con licenza de sup. mdcliii. ● London, Victoria & Albert Museum, E.115 (-138) –1909 (24 plates; final plate with added publication line: Si Stampano da Gio. Iacomo de Rossi in Roma alla Pace) ● London, British Museum, 1874,0808.727 (‘I Giochi dello scacco’ title-plate).
25. Impressions with ‘Rousel ex.’ ● Los Angeles, Getty Research Institute, 85-B27061 (24 plates; apparently a mixture of editions) ● ex-Th.H. Lunsingh Scheurleer (16 plates, including a title-print ‘with no title’; with Asher Rare Books, 2013; catalogue). Impressions with ‘Mariette excu.’ ● New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1932.95.1 (24 plates) ● Vienna, MAK, KI 3666 F-80 (images); Illustrierter Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung des K.K. Österreichischen Museums für Kunst und Industrie. Erwerbungen seit 1889, compiled by F. Ritter (Vienna 1919), pp.106–107. Impressions with ‘A Paris chez Huquier rue S.t Jacques près les Maturins’ ● Parma, Biblioteca Palatina, Raccolta Ortalli (Zeno Davoli, ‘Precisazioni su Domenico Santi incisore con una nota su Agostino Mitelli’ in Grafica d’Arte 21, April-June 2010, no. 82, p.10).
26. ‘All’ Ill.mo Sig.r Fran.co Bandini. | Humilissimo seruitore Giovan Batista Paganelli DD. | Agost.o Miltell In Ventor.’ ● London, Victoria & Albert Museum, E.3926 (-3947)–1907 (22 plates) ● Reggio Emilia, Biblioteca Panizzi, Gabinetto delle stampe ‘Angelo Davoli’, Inventario 9689 (title; image), 13348, 13350, 13354, 13356; Gabinetto delle stampe A. Davoli, La raccolta di stampe Angelo Davoli: catalogo generale. Volume settimo: Ni-Ra, by Zeno Davoli and Chiara Panizzi (Reggio Emilia 2008), p.58: ‘Non sappiamo se il Paganelli sia stato veramente incisore’. Kunstgewerbe-Museum zu Leipzig, Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung, compiled by E. von Ubisch (Leipzig 1889), p.78 (23 plates).
27. From ● Reggio Emilia, Biblioteca Panizzi, Gabinetto delle stampe ‘Angelo Davoli’, Inventario 9686 (platemark 245 × 162 mm; image). Fuhring, op. cit., no. 1119.
28. From ● Vienna, MAK, KI 3666 F-80 S-30 Z-11 (image).
29. From ● London, Victoria & Albert Museum, 20307.3 (trimmed: 250 × 167 mm; image).
30. From ● Vienna, MAK / Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, KI 3666 F-80 S-32 Z-15 (image).
31. Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, Graphische Sammlungen, GS5081: ‘Kopie nach Agostino Mitelli’ of the title-plate (catalogue).
32. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Elisha Whittelsey Collection, 1957.581.53 (image): the right half of this sheet is associated with plate 18 (in Mariette’s numeration; see image of MAK KI 3666 F-80 S-34 Z-20), and the left half of the sheet with plate 22 (see image of MAK KI 3666 F-80 S-36 Z-24); Metropolitan Museum of Art, Elisha Whittelsey Collection, 1957.581.54 (image): the left half of this sheet is associated with plate 17 (see image of MAK KI 3666 F-80 S-34 Z-19).