Beschreibung:

SAINT-NON, Jean Claude Richard, Abbé de (1727-1791). Voyage pittoresque ou description des Royaumes de Naples et de Sicile . Paris: Clousier, 1781-86. 4 volumes in 5, 2° (494 x 325mm). Half-titles, titles with engraved vignette, engraved dedication to Marie Antoinette, engraved plates, often printed two to a sheet, dispersed as follows: I: 47 plates plus 3 double-page maps and one plan; II: 81 plates (including the Priapic plate) plus 2 maps, one of which is double-page; III: 101 plates including 3 maps, of which 2 are double-page, plus a double-page carte Théodosienne ; IV part 1: 105 plates, including 3 maps, of which one is double-page; IV part 2: 34 plates plus 14 plates of doubles médailles ; many fine, engraved head- and tailpieces, including 25 in vol.II depicting Greek vase painting printed in colour. (One plate (II:45) foxed, one plate bound upside-down, occasional very light browning or spotting.) Contemporary speckled calf (worn). Provenance : Henri Louis Brönner of Frankfurt (bookseller's label in vol.I). FIRST EDITION of "one of the most ambitious and successful of travel books" (Ray). Saint-Non first undertook this vast project using the designs of his close companions Fragonard and Hubert Robert and continued with the work of Desprez, Duplessis-Bertaux, Marillier, and other masters of the period. Its painstaking production nearly ruined completely both his health and his pocket. This copy is COMPLETE WITH THE PHALLUS PLATE UNTOUCHED; it was censored on the orders of the King of Naples and is often missing or defaced. It also contains the additional 14 plates of medals at the end, and has plates 84 and 86-88 in vol.III in their first state and numbered 24, 12, 13, and 24bis. The plate count of vol.III varies slightly from Brunet, who cites 100 plates, of which 3 are maps, but the first map is unnumbered and therefore additional to the 100 numbered plates. Cohen-de Ricci 928-930; Cicognara 2708; Brunet V, 55; Ray French 34; Blackmer 1473. (5)