Dictionaries, encyclopaedias, directoriesThere are 7 items
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Vite dei pittori scultori ed architetti napoletani
Naples, Tipografia Trani, 1840-1846Four volumes (23 cm), I (1840): ix (3), 384 pp. II (1843): 412 (2) pp. III (1844): 588 (2) pp. IV (1846): 664 pp. Uniformly bound in early 20th century Italian patterned-paper boards (upper cover of original printed wrappers retained in each volume). ¶ Exlibris Massimo Listri. Backs sunned and lightly waterstained; occasional internal foxing. -
Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart
Leipzig, E.A. Seemann, 1907-1950Thirty-seven volumes (27 cm), uniformly bound in half-morocco (a collector’s binding). - Original edition of this magisterial dictionary of artists, “a milestone for scholarly biographical art publishing” (Dictionary of Art Historians). It was started by Ulrich Thieme in 1898, with the intention of continuing a similar enterprise undertaken by Julius Meyer in 1872, which had ceased after three volumes. Becker withdrew from the project in 1910, owing to ill health; volumes 3-13, were edited by Thieme alone; volumes 14-15 by Thieme jointly with Frederick Charles Willis (b. 1883); and volumes 16-36 were edited by Hans Vollmer (1878-1969). Until 1921, when the Deutsche Verein für Kunstwissenschaft took over the project, it was financed entirely from Thieme and Becker’s private resources. Contact with more than 300 contributors was maintained despite the disruption of two World Wars; incredibly, three volumes were issued during the second War. A British air raid in 1944 destroyed the remaining stock of copies and ever since good sets of the original edition have been difficult to procure. ¶ Fine set. -
Neues allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon oder Nachrichten von dem Leben und den Werken der Maler, Bildhauer, Baumeister, Kupferstecher, Lithographen, Formschneider, Zeichner, Medailleure, Elfenbeinarbeiter, etc. 3. Auflage
Leipzig, Schwarzenberg & Schumann, [1924]Twenty-five volumes (23 cm), uniformly bound in burgundy cloth, backs lettered in gilt, green paper endleaves. - Facsimile reprint of the edition 1835-1852. ¶ From the reference library of Fiametta Olschki-Witt; sale by Bloomsbury Book Auctions, London, 5 October 1995, lot 135: £340. Some shelf-wear; a clean, unmarked and bright set. -
Joachim von Sandrarts Academie der Bau, Bild, und Mahlerey-Künste von 1675 : Leben der berühmten Maler, Bildhauer und Baumeister
Munich, G. Hirth, 1925(30 cm), 445 (3) pp., illustrations. Publisher’s black cloth, lettered in gilt on cover and spine. - First edition (reprinted Farnborough: Gregg 1971). ¶ Unidentified bookplate: Exlibris GW, signed with artists’ initials “gy”. -
The circle of knowledge : Encyclopaedias past and present : an exhibition to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (catalogue of an exhibition held at the Newberry Library, Chicago, 9 April-3 May 1968)
Chicago, Newberry Library, 1968(29 cm), (4) 56 pp., 29 illustrations. Publisher’s printed wrappers. - Among the exhibits lent by Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. were the original typescripts of Trotsky’s article on Lenin (written for the 13th edition) and Marie Curie’s on Radium; from the Newberry’s collections came a 12th-century manuscript of Cassiodorus “Institutiones” from Admont (via E.P. Goldschmidt, 1936; described in his Catalogue 100, item 25), the 1460 Catholicon, the Venice Pliny of 1469, and Wynkyn de Worde’s Bartholomaeus Anglicus of 1495. Ornamented by two engravings by Reynolds Stone, one dedicated to the memory of Stanley Morison, who had suggested the exhibition. “The catalogue is one of the best printed we have seen” (from a notice in The Book Collector, Spring 1969, pp.67-68). ¶ Clean, unmarked copy. -
Die Monogrammisten
Nieuwkoop, B. de Graaf, 1977Six volumes in five (22.5 cm), I: xxviii, 1088 pp. II: viii, 1121 pp. III: iv, 1144 pp. IV: iv, 1156 pp. V: vi, 436, 110 pp. Uniform publisher’s cloth. - “An unsurpassed reference work of permanent value, to identify artists who sign themselves only by their monogram or similar device. Literally thousands of them were book illustrators, hence the work’s importance for books. Nagler begins by giving an exact facsimile of the monogram(s); this is followed by the artist’s name, his biography and then a list of his works, frequently including a complete bibliography of books illustrated by him. Arrangement is alphabetical. The total number of main entries is 14,961; the number of monogram facsimiles must be well over 30,000” (publisher’s advertisement). Facsimile reprint of the Munich 1858 edition (vol. 5, index: Munich, G. Franz, 1879). Publisher’s retail price (for a subsequent reimpression, in 1991) €512 (www.brill.com; link). ¶ As new. -
The Art of French calotype : With a critical dictionary of photographers, 1845-1870
Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1983(24 × 27 cm), xxiv, 284 pp., 69 full-page plates, 131 figures/illustrations throughout text. Publisher’s cloth, pictorial dust jacket. - “The most complete, the most scrupulously researched, and certainly the most beautiful book on the art of the French calotype… The amount of new information is extraordinarily rich - so much so that obscure and virtually forgotten photographers can no longer be ignored”. “The plates are quite simply marvellous. Printed on acid-free paper, they exude all the distinctive mystique of the calotype” (quotations from a review by Ronald Pickvance, in The Burlington Magazine, volume 126, 1984, pp.365-366). ¶ Dust jacket shelf worn. Excellent, unmarked copy.
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