Classical studiesThere are 56 items
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Opera [edited with a commentary by Christophorus Landinus]
Venice, Johannes de Gregoriis, de Forlivio, et Socii, 1483 (17 May)The complete works of Horace with the commentary of Cristoforo Landino, a copy owned and annotated by the Augsburg jurist, collector, and scholar Konrad Peutinger (1465–1547). In the early 1720s, when the first of Peutinger’s books and manuscripts entered the market, it was bought by the English bibliophile Edward Harley (1689–1741) for the Harleian Library. The book passed thereafter through the hands of the bookseller Thomas Osborne into the library of Bryan Fairfax (1766-1749), thence to Francis Child (c. 1735–1763), and by descent to Victor Albert George Child Villiers, 7th earl of Jersey (1845–1915), whose Osterley Park Library was sold in 1885. Since then, it has been in the William O’Brien (1832–1899) collection, its Peutinger provenance unrecognised. -
[De architectura libri decem] M. Vitruvius per Iocundum solito castigatior factus cum figuris et tabula ut iam legi et intelligi possit
Venice, Joannes Tacuinus, 1511 (22 May)The didactic treatise On Architecture is the only text on architectural theory and practice to have survived from classical antiquity and the single most important work of architectural history in the Western world, having shaped humanist architecture and the image of the architect from the Renaissance to the present. The present, fourth edition, represents a turning point in Vitruvian studies. It delivers an ingeniously reconstructed and emended text integrated with diagrams and illustrations and complemented by a lexicon of Vitruvius’ technical terminology and by a table of the mathematical symbols that he used. Nearly all the Greek words are reinstated and the Greek text of the epigrams is published for the first time. The title proudly announces the editor’s achievement: “An exceptionally good text of M. Vitruvius prepared by Giocondo with figures and index so that it can now be read and understood”. Indeed, for the first time, the work was presented in a form which enabled Renaissance architects and engineers and their patrons to comprehend what Vitruvius really wrote.
Bound with Pélerin, Jean, called Viator. De artificiali p[er]spectiva. Toul, Pierre Jacobi, 9 July (i.e. 23 June) 1505
Bound with Dürer, Albrecht. Underweysung der messung, mit dem zirckel und richtscheyt, in Linien ebnen unnd gantzen corporen, durch Albrecht Dürer zu samen getzogen, und zu nutz allen kunstlieb habenden mit zu gehörigen figuren, in truck gebracht, im jar. M.D.XXV. Nuremberg, [Hieronymus Andreae, called Hieronymus Formschneider?], 1525 -
Romische historien Titi liuii mit etlichen newen Translation so kurtzuerschienen jaren im hohen thum Styfft zu Mentz jm latein erfunden und vorhyn nit mer gesehen sein [a free paraphrase by Bernard Schöfferlin, continued by Ivo Wittich, with additions by Nikolaus Fabri Carbach]
Mainz, Johann Schöffer, 1523First printing of a revised and enlarged German translation of Livy's Ab urbe condita, featuring illustrations from woodblocks cut for editions published by Johann Schöffer at Mainz in 1505, and by Johann Grüninger at Strasbourg in 1507, newly married with a large and highly acclaimed set of blocks attributed to Conrad Faber von Creuznach. -
Monumenta sepulcrorum cum epigraphis ingenio et doctrina excellentium virorum: aliorumque tam prisci quam nostri seculi memorabilium hominum: de archetypis expressa
Breslau [Wroclaw], Crispin Scharffenberg, 1574First edition of a suite of prints reproducing a sylloge of inscriptions and monumenta sepulchralia, compiled by a Silesian nobleman, Siegfried Ribisch (1530-1584), during his ten-year peregrinatio academica across Europe (1545-1554). A remarkable and highly desirable copy: fabric bindings of the sixteenth century are now seldom encountered on the market. -
Marmora Arundelliana; siue Saxa Graecè incisa Ex venerandis priscae Orientis gloriae ruderibus, auspicijs & impensis Herois Illustriss. Thomae Comitis Arundelliae & Surriae, Comitis Marescalli Angliae, pridèm vindicata & in aedibus eius hortisque cognominibus, ad Thamesis ripam, disposita. Accedunt Inscriptiones aliquot veteris Latij, ex locupletissimo eiusdem Vetustatis Thesauro selectae. Auctariolum item aliundè sumtum
London, William Stansby, 1628First edition of Selden’s description of twenty-nine Greek and ten Latin inscribed stones in the collection of Thomas Howard, second Earl of Arundel (1586-1646). These had been acquired by Arundel from an agent in Symrna in 1626-1627, in competition with the Provençal scholar Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc. Selden’s book, prepared with help from the royal librarian Patrick Young (Junius) and Richard James (Cotton's librarian), spread the fame of the collection throughout learned Europe. -
Notae Graecorum sive vocum et numerorum compendia quae in aereis atque marmoreis graecorum tabulis observantur Collegit recensuit explicavit easdemque tabulas opportune illustravit… Accedunt Dissertationes sex quibus marmora quaedam tum sacra tum profana exponuntur ac emendantur
Florence, Grand-ducal press, 1749First printing of a discussion and interpretation of about one thousand Greek abbreviations for words and numerals, compiled to correct and augment deficiencies in the Graecorum siglae lapidariae published in 1746 by Francesco Scipione Maffei. This copy is from the library of the theologian Lüder Kulenkamp (1724-1794), whose library was sold at auction in Göttingen, May 1796 (lot 7402). -
Collection of engravings from ancient vases mostly of pure Greek workmanship discovered in sepulchres in the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, but chiefly in the neighbourhood of Naples during the course of the years MDCCLXXXIX and MDCCLXXXX now in the possession of Sir Wm. Hamilton… with remarks on each vase by the collector
Naples, Wilhelm Tischbein, 1791 [-1796]Fine copy of the catalogue of Hamilton’s second vase collection, gathered after selling the first to the British Museum in 1772, edited and illustrated by the German painter Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein (1751-1829), then director of the Naples Academy of Painting, assisted by the Russian ambassador at Naples, Andrei Yakovlevich Italinsky (1743-1827). This set includes the scarce “fourth volume”, a series of sixty-one plates without text, conceived before Hamilton’s forced departure from Naples (December 1798), but published afterwards, by Tischbein alone. -
Reliquiae Britannico-Romanae, containing figures of Roman Antiquities discovered in various parts of England
London, Printed by T. Bensley, for Cadell and Davies [etc.], [1801]-1813-1817 (but 1819)This sumptuous publication, representing nearly twenty-five years of work, illustrates mosaics found on numerous sites excavated by the author, a pioneer of field archaeology and also illustration, far ahead of his time in both discernment and technique. Although Roman mosaics had been encountered previously, notably by Sir Christopher Wren in his reconstruction of London following the Great Fire of 1666, systematic excavation was unknown, and few pavements had been drawn in situ and transcribed into engravings. Lysons’ scholarly publications ushered in a period of great interest in exposing mosaics, and the numbers of known examples multiplied rapidly. Since many mosaics reproduced by Lysons were later damaged by ploughing and gravedigging, in some cases wholly destroyed, his prints have acquired permanent value. -
Description d’un Pavé en Mosaïque découvert dans l’ancienne Ville d’Italica, aujourd’hui le village de Santiponce, près de Séville; suivie de recherches sur la Peinture en Mosaïque chez les Anciens, et les Monuments en ce genre qui n’ont point encore été publiés
Paris, De l’Imprimerie de P. Didot l’Aîné, 1802First edition of this beautifully-illustrated work documenting the mosaic mentioned in the title, discovered by labourers on 12 December 1799 at Italica in southwest Spain, reported to José Moscoso, a monk of the nearby monastery of San Isidro del Campo, and by him to Francisco Espinosa, a lawyer in Seville, who paid for it be cleaned and enclosed by a wall. Despite these measures, the mosaic was soon completely lost, and Laborde's work is now the primary witness. -
Peintures De Vases Antiques Vulgairement Appelés Étrusques Tirées De Différentes Collections Et Gravées Par A. Clener Accompagnées D'Explications Par A. L. Millin Membre De L'Institut Et De La Légion D'Honneur Publiées Par M. Dubois Maisonneuve Tome Premier [-Second)
Paris, P. Didot, l’aîné, 1808-1810A finely-bound copy of Millin’s catalogue of about 120 vases, for the most part in private Parisian collections. The 150 large plates reproduce outline drawings of the designs on the vases. Millin’s draughtsman was Angelo Cléner, the pupil or associate of J.H.W. Tischbein, who had collaborated with Tischbein in the second Hamilton publication; some of the plates may be Cléner’s copies of unpublished plates for that publication. -
Il Museo Chiaramonti aggiunto al Pio-Clementino da N. S. Pio VII P.M. con l’esplicazione de’ Sigg. Filippo Aurelio Visconti e Giuseppe Antonio Guattani; pubblicato da Antonio d’Este e Gaspare Capparone. Tomo primo
Rome, Antonio d’Este and Gaspare Capparoné, 1808Finely-bound copy of the descriptive catalogue of a new collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculptures (including inscribed altars), hurriedly assembled to offset the loss of Vatican antiquities taken by France in 1797. Forty-four objects are described, each depicted in a full-page engraving, with the iconographies and descriptions of each work often accompanied by details of excavation provenance, identity of the vendor, condition and restorations. The binder of our copy, Franz Sebastian Voll (1783-1846), was born in Würzburg, and admitted to the guild of binders in Mannheim in 1807. His clients included the princely house of Fürstenberg, Grand-Duchess Stephanie von Baden, and perhaps Ernst August I, King of Hannover. -
Les ruines de Pompéi, par F. Mazois Architecte, Inspecteur Générale des Batiments Civils, Chevalier de L’Ordre Royal de La Légion d’Honneur. Première Partie [title in volume III: Les Ruines de Pompéi, par F. Mazois…Et Continué par M. Gau, Auteur des Antiquités de La Nubie. Troisième Partie; title in volume IV: Les Ruines de Pompéi, par F. Mazois… Ouvrage continué par M. Gau, Architecte, Précédé d’Une Notice sur F. Mazois, par M. Le Cher Artaud, Membre De L’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, et De L’Explication de La Grande Mosaïque Découverte a Pompéi en 1831, par M. Quatremère de Quincy, Secrétaire Perpétuel de L’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres… Le Texte de la Quatrième Partie a été rédigé par M. Barré, Professeur de Philosophie. Quatrième Partie]
Paris, Imprimerie et Librairie de Firmin Didot (volumes III-IV: Librairie de Firmin Didot Frères), 1812-1838Very fine copy of a scholarly and thorough archaeological study of Pompeii, intended by its author as the beginning of a series on Paestum, Herculaneum, and Pozzuoli. Through the agency of Etienne-Chérubin Leconte, architect to Carolina Murat, Queen of Naples, Mazois had been appointed dessinateur de son cabinet, and given access to the excavations, still jealously controlled by the Naples Academy. From 1809 to 1811, he resided in the ruins, making hundreds of drawings. At the beginning of 1811, Mazois returned to Rome, where he apparently supervised the engraving of some of his drawings, and proceeded thence to Paris to prepare the text. The first fascicule was published in January 1813, and further fascicules appeared at irregular intervals thereafter. On New Year’s Eve, 1826, Mazois suddenly died, having just completed the first three fascicules of the projected third volume. His widow made available his drawings to Franz Christian Gau (1790-1853), and these were integrated into two further volumes: Gau wrote the text for the third volume, published in 1829; Louis Barré was the principal author of the fourth volume, issued in January 1838. -
Collection des Vases Grecs de M.r le Comte de Lamberg, expliquée et publiée par le Comte de Laborde
Paris, De l’imprimerie de Didot l’ainé (volume II: Imprimerie de Jules Didot Ainé), 1813 [-1829]Magnificent catalogue of a selection of ancient vases in the vast collection belonging to the Austrian diplomat Anton Franz de Paula, Graf von Lamberg-Sprinzenstein (1740-1822). Formed substantially in Naples, during Count Lamberg's term as envoy (17 December 1778-15 November 1784), and augmented after his return to Vienna, the collection grew to comprise more than 700 vases. In 1815, in a move to forestall an intended sale of the collection to Ludwig von Bayern, some 670 vases were acquired for the imperial museums by Franz I, Emperor of Austria, in return for 125,000 Guilders (the vases were afterwards incorporated in the Kunsthistorisches Museum). The work appeared in eighteen livraisons; subscribers could choose between copies printed on papier vélin (as here), or copies on the same paper, but with the plates avant la lettre. The plates in all copies are aquatints printed in colour, using mainly black and ochre together with mauve, brown or grey. The first plate is a general view of the collection, engraved by Benedikt Piringer (1780-1826) after a watercolour executed in 1791 by Carl Schütz. One of the title-prints is indistinctly signed Dien (presumably Claude Marie François Dien, 1773-1842); the other plates and vignettes are unsigned. -
Peintures antiques et inédites de vases grecs, tirées de diverses collections, avec des explications, par J.V. Millingen
Rome, Imprimé Par [Mariano] De Romanis, 1813First edition of an important catalogue of vases belonging to the author or in private collections, including that of Carolina Murat, queen of Naples. Sixty numbered plates depict in outline ancient Greek vase paintings of myths and three plates (lettered A-C) show the variety of shapes of vases. The vases are classified according to period (following Winckelmann’s broad divisions) and reproduced with unprecedented care and fidelity; they “are the first [prints] on which missing and restored portions are indicated” (Dietrich von Bothmer). The unsigned plates are credited in the text to the draughtsman Michele Steurnal (Steurnel), a porcelain painter at the Real Fabbrica in Naples, and the prolific reproductive engraver Francesco Giangiacomo. -
Le Jupiter Olympien, ou l’art de la sculpture antique considéré sous un nouveau point de vue; ouvrage qui comprend un essai sur le gout de la sculpture polychrome, l’analyse explicative de la toreutique, et l’histoire de la statuaire en or et ivoire chez les Grecs et les Romains, avec la restitution des principaux monuments de cet art et la démonstration pratique ou le renouvellement de ses procédés mécaniques
Paris, Chez Du Bure Frères (De l’Imprimerie de Firmin Didot), 1815First edition (second issue) of the author’s speculations about the role of colour in Greek art and architecture, presented as reconstructions of about ten lost sculptures of Greek Antiquity, including the Chest of Kypselos (pls. III-IV), the Athena Parthenos (pls. VIII-X), the chryselephantine Zeus at Olympia (pls. XI-XVII), and a table for the Olympic Games, made of gold and ivory (pl. XXIV). The work fed a controversy concerning polychromy and the iconography of Greek sculpture. -
Introduction à l’étude des vases antiques d’argile peints, vulgairement appelés Étrusques: accompagnée d’une collection des plus belles formes, ornées de leurs peintures suivie de planches la plupart inédites pour servir de supplément aux différents recueils de ces monuments
Paris, Pierre Didot l’ainé, 1817 [-1834]Rare hand-coloured issue of a lavish catalogue of Greek vases, selected from more than twenty collections, including some already dispersed, such as those of Sir William Hamilton (1772, 1801) and Anton Franz de Paula, Graf von Lamberg-Sprinzenstein (1815). The majority of the vases, however, came onto the market during the long course of publication, as the collections formed by Joseph-François Tochon d’Annecy (1818), Sir John Thomas Coghill, Bt (1819), Jean Philippe Guy Le Gentil, comte de Paroy (1824), Joséphine de Beauharnais at Malmaison (1824), and Edmé Antoine Durand (1825, 1836) were scattered. Many vases are identifiable in permanent collections, in Berlin, Boston, Cambridge, Liverpool, London, Los Angeles, Munich, Naples, New York, Oxford, Paris, Philadelphia, Providence, Vienna, and elsewhere. -
Peintures Antiques de Vases Grecs de la Collection de Sir John Coghill Bart publiées par James Millingen de la Société Des Antiquaires de Londres, et de l’Académie Archæologique de Rome
Rome, Imprimé Par [Mariano] De Romanis, 1817Only edition of the catalogue of a collection of vases belonging to Sir John Thomas Coghill, Bt (1766-1817), mostly acquired from the antiquary Giovanni Gherardo de Rossi (1754-1827), who was dispersing collections assembled by the banker Francesco Lalò, treasurer to Carolina Murat, Queen of Naples, and the Neapolitan collector “M. Bonnet”. De Rossi had intended to publish a catalogue of the Lalò vases and thirty-nine outline engravings already had been made of the most interesting vases. Those plates are employed here, together with thirteen new plates of Coghill’s other acquisitions. The Coghill vases were sold in London by Christie’s in June 1819, when many passed into the hands of the collectors Henry Englefield, Thomas Hope, and Richard Payne Knight. -
The unedited Antiquities of Attica; comprising the architectural remains of Eleusis, Rhamnus, Sunium, and Thoricus
London, Printed by W. Bulmer and Co., published by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; and John Murray, 1817Fine copy of the first edition. This work was the result of the second Ionian expedition sent by the Society of the Dilettanti to the Levant, undertaken between November 1811 and the summer of 1813. Its members included William Gell, Francis Bedford, and John Gandy. Their greatest discovery was the Temples of Ceres (now called Demeter) and other buildings on the site of the famous Eleusinian mysteries, and Eleusis is the subject of the first five chapters. -
Mosaïques de Lyon et des départemens méridionaux de la France expliquées et publiées par F. Artaud
[Paris], Debure & Didot l’Aîné, 1818-1822A rare set (title and 59 plates, engravings and lithographs) of coloured reproductions of mosaic pavements discovered at Lyon and Vienne, described by the founder of the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Lyon. Although work on the plates commenced in 1809, a prospectus inviting subscriptions for the work was not printed until March 1818; publication ceased after the twelfth livraison, distributed in 1822.Bound with Artaud (Antoine Marie François). Description d'une mosaïque représentant des jeux du cirque, découverte à Lyon le 18 Février 1806. Par F. Artaud. Lyon, De l'Imprimerie de Ballanche, père et fils, 1806
The second work in the volume documents a mosaic pavement depicting a chariot race in a circus, uncovered in 1806 in the garden of the pharmacist Paul Macors on the ramparts of Ainay.
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Gli ornati delle pareti, ed i pavimenti delle stanze dell’antica Pompei incisi in rame
Naples, Nella Stamperia Regale, 1822A magnificent work reproducing on a very large scale the Roman wall paintings and mosaic pavements discovered at Pompeii and Herculaneum.
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