Beschreibung:

BONARELLI, Prospero (1588-1659). Il Solimano . Florence: Pietro Cecconcelli, 1620.
BONARELLI, Prospero (1588-1659). Il Solimano . Florence: Pietro Cecconcelli, 1620. 4 o (230 x 173 mm). Engraved title and 5 double-page plates by JACQUES CALLOT after the designs of Giulio Parigi (on later tabs). (A few marginal flaws.) 17th- or 18th-century Italian vellum, morocco lettering-piece. Provenance : Sam Merryman (armorial bookplate); B. Dockray (signature dated 1853 on front pastedown); acquired from Davis and Orioli, 1958. FIRST EDITION, second state of the title. Bonarelli's great tragedy was performed in Florence in 1618. Jacques Callot illustrated the work, following the designs of his tutor and colleague, Giulio Parigi an architect and the chief designer of courtly festivities under the Grand Duke, Cosimo II de' Medici. Both Parigi and Callot were employed by the Medicis, and under their patronage Callot made his many improvements in etching. This is one of the last books he produced for the Medicis, since he returned to his native Nancy following the death of Cosimo II in 1621. "The dramatic finale shows the city of the tyrant Soliman in flames, The moveable scenes--THE FIRST IN THE HISTORY OF THE THEATRE--picture contemporary Florence. The whole of its effective contrasts of dark and light, seems fantastic, yet it is the rational and realistic portrait of a fantastic, imaginary subject" (Otto Benesch, Artistic and Intellectual Trends from Rubens to Daumier , Cambridge, 1942, p.17). Berlin 4112; Brunet I:1089; Cicognara 1086; Gamba 1810; Lieure 363-368.