RACCOLTA DI VARIE FAVOLE delineate, ed incise in rame da Giorgio Fossati Architetto &c. , Tomo Terzo & Tomo Quarto

Venezia (Venice): Carlo Pecora, 1744. Two volumes (3 & 4 of 6) bound as one. Large 4to. Early full vellum binding with a brown leather title patch; all edges gilt; marbled pastedown endpapers. Parallel texts in Italian and French for seventy-two fables, each illustrated with a beautiful full-page color etching by Fossati. Each etching is printed in one of various shades of red, orange, brown, green, blue and black. In addition to the 72 plates, there are engraved vignettes on the 4 title pages, a red engraved headpiece for volume 3, and an engraved tailpiece following the text for each of the fables. Fossati (1706-1778) was an Italian architect who also was a very good printmaker and book illustrator. For the fables he portrayed animals realistically and used his architectural training for accurate renderings of baroque buildings. A rare title: OCLC locates only 13 libraries with any of the volumes. Ours is a very nice (vg+) copy with text and plates on clean and supple laid paper; very faint offsetting from the plates on only a few fables. Cohen-de Ricci 410; Rosenwald 1570; Martineau, THE GLORY OF VENICE, p. 290.. First Edition. Hardcover. Collectible-Very Good ++. Illus. by Giorgio Fossati. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. Book.