Gli ornati delle pareti ed i pavimenti delle stanze dell'antica Pompei incisi in rame.: A spectacular, majestic work illustrating the magnificent decorations of the walls and the pavements discovered in Pompeii and Herculaneum

Missing plate 54, plates 55 and 57 are loose and apparently come from another copy with thinner margins, very slight spots and foxing throughout especially to first leaves and last one leaf, slight large waterstain from the top, else a clean large copy in good condition.

A spectacular, majestic work illustrating the magnificent decorations of the walls and the pavements discovered in Pompeii and Herculaneum, that required the collaboration of many artists.

At page 6 there's a large engraved vignette illustrating the eruption of the Vesuvius with the inscription "Eruzione del Vesuvio 8 Agosto 1779 (Eruption of the Vesuvius 8th of August 1779)" engraved by Francesco Giomignani, after a painting by Pietro Fabris; the index lists all the plates present in the work: 67 plates for the ornati delle pareti (ornaments of the walls) and 46 for the pavimenti mosaicati (mosaic pavements).

Among the draughtsmen involved in the production are: Vincenzo Campana, Giovanni and Domenico Casanova, Giuseppe Chiantarelli, Francesco La Vega, Giuseppe Lo Manto, Francesco Morelli, Giovanni Elia and Gugliemo Morghen, Camillo Paderni, Nicola Vanni;

among the printmakers are: Giuseppe, Luigi and Raffaele Aloja, Giuseppe Azzerboni, Nicola Billi, Ferdinando Campana, Francesco Cepparuli, Nicola Fiorillo, Giuseppe Geri, Francesco Giomignani, Giuseppe Guerra, Marcantonio Iacomino, Filippo Imperato, Aniello Lamberti, Francesco Martano, Filippo and Guglielmo Morghen, Carlo Nolli, Bartolomeo Orazi, Vincenzo Scarpati, Antonio Zaballi.

This production has a very misterious and complicated story; it was probably commissioned by the Accademia Ercolanese, founded in Naples by the King of Naples in 1775 to keep an account of all the discoveries made during the excavations in the sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum interred after the eruption of the Vesuvius. The Accademia had already previously commissioned the Antichità di Ercolano esposte (Antiquities of Hermulaneum Exposed), published between 1757 and 1792. (Friedrich Furchheim, Bibliografia di Pompei Ercolano e Stabia).

The work was originally intended as a suite of 12 plates, half dedicated to the walls and half to the pavements, preceeded by two letterpress leaves, the first one, the title-page, dated 1796, and the second one contasining a preface. Then more and more plates were added during the years, so that by 1807 the work was composed by 24 plates for the walls and 24 for the pavements.

In 1808 a second part appeared, comprising two letterpress leaves and a total of 48 new plates. Even after this second "official" great addition, other plates were sporadically added to the work, and many copies appear with title-pages bearing either 1796 or 1808 and followed by 106, 107 or even 113 plates (as in this case). In 1822 then the Stamperia Reale printed a new issue contained all the plates that were known and available at the time with a new title-page.

Leopoldo Cicognara, Catalogo ragionato dei libri d'arte e d'antichità posseduti dal conte Cicognara (Pisa 1821), no. 2645 (undated edition): "un gran volume Atlantico slegato di 106 tavole di pareti, pavimenti, e altre antichità Ercolanesi venuto a poco a poco in luce (a large untied Atlantic volume of 106 tables of walls, floors, and other antiquities Herculaneum came to light little by little)".

Biographical notices of all these draughtsmen and printmakers are provided by Ulrico Pannuti, Incisori e disegnatori della stamperia reale di Napoli nel secolo xviii: La pubblicazione delle Antichità di Ercolano in Xenia antiqua 9 (2000), pp.151–178 (citing the 1796–1808 edition of our work); Vincenzo Trombetta, Le edizioni pregiate della Stamperia di Napoli in Bulletin du bibliophile 2007, pp.70–102; Friedrich Furchheim, Bibliografia di Pompei Ercolano e Stabia (second edition, Naples 1891), p.67 (1796–1808 edition); Fabia Borroni, Il Cicognara: bibliografia dell'archeologia classica e dell'arte italiana, ii/4/2 (Florence 1962), pp.323–324 no. 7472 (1796–1808, 1838 editions); Laurentino García y García, Nova bibliotheca pompeiana (Rome 1998), pp.874–875 no. 9997 (other editions).

List of plates available upon request.