Johannes Blaeu | Novum Italiae theatrum. 1724, 4 volumes, contemporary calf

Johannes Blaeu

Novum Italiae theatrum sive accurate descriptio ipsius urbium, palatiorum, sacrarum aedium &c. [Town books of Italy]. The Hague: Rugert Alberts, 1724

4 volumes, folio (570 x 360mm.), engraved additional titles, titles with engraved vignettes or devices, 285 mostly double-page or folding plates showing maps, town plans and views, panoramas and architectural elevations, list of subscribers in volume 4, contemporary calf, binding rubbed with slight wear at extremities; sold not subject to return due to variable collation (see below)

AN ATTRACTIVE COPY. The work includes fine large panoramic views of Genoa, Venice and Naples, together with many detailed plates depicting the buildings of ancient Rome. Volume one covers Lombardy; volume 2 the Papal states; volume 3 Naples and Sicily; and volume 4 ancient and modern Rome, including the sequence of plates originally from Athanasius Kircher’s work on the obelisks, Obeliscus pamphilius (1650). All the maps are printed from new plates made by Mortier or printed from Blaeu plates, altered by Mortier, often with his address.

Collations of this edition vary. The plate count tallies with Koeman, with the exception of volume 3. The present copy has a map, plates 1-37 and 11* and 25*. Koeman calls for "37 + (8)", and the list of the plates in the volume itself indicates 37 plates is the correct complement.

LITERATURE:

Koeman

PROVENANCE:

Ambrosius Franz von Viermund und Neersen (1682-1744), of Cologne, armorial bookplate