Un an à Rome et dans ses environs; Recueil de dessins lithographiés, représentant les costumes, les usages et le cérémonies civiles et religieuses des états romains, et généralement tout ce qu'on y voit de remarquable pendant le cours d'une année

Paris: Firmin Didot, 1823. First Edition. Near fine. Folio, 14 1/8 x 9 7/8 inches (360 x 251 mm); half title, lithographed vignette title, 72 numbered stone lithographs with hand-coloring in watercolor by Jean-François Villain, after the original drawings by Antoine Jean-Baptiste Thomas; 44 pages of text with descriptions of plates. Occasional light toning, 2 plates with tide-mark to corner just straying into image, some scattered spotting to text. Later red morocco, covers with fillets in gilt and blind, raised bands, gilt floral decorations and gilt title in compartments, marbled endpapers, a.e.g. Binding is tight and square with minimal rubbing to edges and spine. Previous owner name inscribed in ink on the 3rd flyleaf.
[Brunet V, 833; Lipperheide 1309; Bobins 602; Colas 2872; BNF31459915]. An excellent copy of this scarce and important colored plate book on the daily life of Rome together with its architectural and grandeur at the beginning of the 19th century during the reign of Pius VII. The series is the best-known work of Antoine Jean-Baptiste Thomas (1791 - 1834). It originated as an album of 140 watercolors (sold at Druot in 1869) which he completed during his stay in Rome as recipient of the prestigious Prix de Rome. The prize conferred upon him a two-year stay at the magnificent Villa Medici from November 1816 to December 1818, with opportunities to study, have contact with the city's cultural elite and the life of the papal city. The watercolors were purchased in Paris in 1963 for the Museo di Roma, and were the subject of an extensive exhibition and beautifully-illustrated catalogue in 2016 to mark the bicentennial of their creation. In the catalogue the author thus describes the work: It is a real reportage on Rome and its people. With a graphic gesture of great wisdom and ease, animated by a taste for luministic ideas and chromatic variations that is never trite... The young French artist unfolds his most remarkable experiences of the civic and sacred daily life of the city.» [D'Amelio, Angela Maria et al. "Antoine Jean-Baptiste Thomas e il popolo di Roma : 1817-1818" Exhibition catalogue, Museo di Roma. Rome: Campisano Editore, 2016]
Of the 140 watercolors, a selection was made to be engraved by Jean-François Villain (c 1790 - 1852), and the texts were written by Thomas himself. Among the illustrations are civil and religious festivities, fireworks, processions, performances, a bull fight, the dresses of people and prelates, grand views of the city, executions, and funerals. A second edition followed in 1830 although Colas notes that the coloring for the later edition is, in his opinion, inferior. This is the earlier 1823 edition with superior coloration; each lithograph exhibits extensive hand-work and exceptional attention to color and detail. The pigments are in each case lively, fresh, and saturated, serving well to escape the binary tonality of basic lithography.
A resplendent example.

A copy can be found in the collection of the British Museum.