Beschreibung:

CELLINI, Benvenuto (1500-71). La Vie ... écrite par lui-même , translated by Léopold Leclanché, Paris: A. Quantin, 1881. 8° (242 x 160mm.), half title, limitation on verso, wood-engraved frontispiece, title printed in red and black with wood-engraved vignette, 14 engraved plates by A. Quantin, all in 3 states, 8 wood-engraved headpieces and 7 tailpieces, highlighted in gilt, additional title printed in red with wood-engraved vignette [?possibly proof before letters of front wrapper] bound in at the end (a few plates lightly browned), red panelled morocco gilt by Riviere & Son, spine with raised bands, lettered in one compartment, the others lavishly decorated in gilt with foral and foliate motifs, panelled gilt doublures, inner panel in blue morocco, outer panel in red morocco with dentelle border of floral and foliate motifs, silk endpapers, additional title printed in red with wood-engraved vignette [?possibly proof before letters of front wrapper] bound in at end, t.e.g., others uncut. NUMBER 18 OF 20 COPIES ON JAPANESE PAPER. Cellini's Life was first published in French in 1822. His lasting fame is due as much to his record of his own life as it is to his work as an artist. "Dictated to a secretary, it is composed in colloquial language with no literary artifice and gives a first-hand account of the writer's experience in the Rome of Clement VII, the France of Francis I, and the Florence of Cosimo de' Medici. Despite its manifest exaggerations and its often boastful tone, it is a human document of surprising frankness and incomparable authenticity, and thanks to it Cellini's character is more intimately known than that of any other figure of his time" ( Encyclopedia Britannica ). Vicaire II, 150.