WEB AUCTION 118 - LIBRI E AUTOGRAFI

CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, MIGUEL DE
El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha
Madrid, Gabriel de Sancha, 1797 / 1798

In-8 19.6x13 cm
Beautiful edition of one of the most important masterpieces of world literature.
5 volumes complete with the 35 engravings and bound in full contemporary leather.
Excellent copy.

FRANCESCO BECATTINI (1743 - 1813)

Storia politica, filosofica e naturale del regno di Svezia sino a tutto il secolo XVIII. E incoronazione del regnate Gustavo IV. Venezia, presso Antonio Zatta qu: Giacomo, 1802


§ 8vo (12x20x2 / x2 / x3 / x5cm.). I- VIII, 292 pp. (*1-4, A-R1-8, S1-10; II- 246 of 248 (recte 242 of 244, pp. 1-2 (blank?) missing, numbering jumps from 224 to 229), last leaf blank missing (*1-4, A2-8 (A1 missing, blank), B-O1-8, P1-9) (P10 missing, blank). III- VIII, 284 pp. (*1-4, A-R1-8, S1-6). IV- VIII, 390 pp. (*1-4, A-V1-8, X1-5, (numbering, text and catchword continuous, X6 or X6-8 apparently eliminated by the printer), Y-Z1-8, Aa1-8, Bb1-6). 4 engraved frontispieces, 1 folding table, 2 large engraved folding maps, 2 large engraved folding plates. Publisher’s yellow wrappers, paper label with title on spines. scattered unimportant foxing. Exceptional copy, uncut, vols. II-IV unopened. A gorgeous eight volumes- set in pristine conditions.

Polygrapher, journalist and publicist of Florentine origin, Francesco Becattini is one of the most curious characters among the Italian publishers actives at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. A very prolific biographer and historian, he cultivated anti-dyspotic ideals throughout his life - despising the work of the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo d'Asburgo Lorena (1747-1792) - although openly condemning the French Revolution, and at the same time showing a sincere interest in figures such as Gustavo III (1746-1792), one of the greatest examples of enlightened despot. To the latter Becattini dedicated his Storia del regno e della vita di Gustavo III re di Svezia (Venezia, Antonio Zatta e figli, 1792-3,), of which the present, political, philosophical and natural history constitutes a second, updated and enriched edition; Undoubtedly the enormous amount of Becattini’s contributions contain considerable sources from the courtly environment, privileged witnesses for the reconstruction of political dynamics within the European courts of otherwise very complex interpretation.
A beautiful copy of a very rare work.
Ref. M. A. Morelli Timpanaro, Su Francesco Becattini (1743-1813), di professione poligrafo, in Archivio Storico Italiano, CXLIX,2 (1991), pp. 279-374

GIUSEPPE PIAZZI (1746 - 1826)

Praecipuarum stellarum inerrantium positiones mediae ineunte seculo XIX. ex observationibus habitis in specula Panormitana ab anno 1792 ad annum 1802. Panormi, typis Regiis, 1803.


§ Folio, XL, [706], 76 pp; Most of the text composed of astronomical tables; chalcographic vignettes on the title page and leaf b1r. Original half-leather binding (brown paper on convers) with gild-stamped title on the spine; a charming, excellently preserved copy.
First, rare and sought-after edition of one of the most important star catalogues of all time, by the Theatine father Giuseppe Piazzi, among the greatest astronomer of the early 19th century.
Piazzi taught mathematics in a number of Italian cities; in 1780 he was summoned by the viceroy of Sicily, to fill the chair of higher mathematics at the Royal Academy of Palermo. With the aim to establish an astronomical observatory in the Sicilian city, toward the end of the 1780s Piazzi went to England - where he made acquaintance of Nevil Maskelyne (1732 - 1811), William Herschel (1738 - 1822) and Jesse Ramsden (1735 - 1800) - in order to obtain the best possible equipment.
Having returned to Palermo, where the observatory was inaugurated on 1790, Piazzi took up the problem of the precise determination of the astronomical coordinates (direct ascension and declination) of the principal stars. Between 1792 and 1802 Piazzi dedicated himself in the intense and fatiguing work of star cataloguing, ultimately publishing the present repertoire, indicating the medial positions of 6.748 stars. This catalogue was more accurate than any of its predecessors and the Institut de France awarded it the Lalande Prize for the best astronomical work published in 1803.
Among Piazzi’s major accomplishments it is also worth remembering the discovery of Ceres in 1801, the largest object in the asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter (called by the astronomer Cerere Ferdinandea). With a diameter of 945 km, Ceres is both the largest of the asteroids and the only unambiguous dwarf planet inside Neptune’s orbit.
Ref: OCLC 490273223

LORENZO ROCCHEGGIANI
Raccolta Di Cento Tavole…, Roma, Appresso Giacomo Raffaelli, 1804

Folio. Half calf, damaged. Complete with 100 engraved plates depicting Roman artefacts. Foxing and slight water stains.

GAETANO FILANGIERI
La Scienza Della Legislazione, Filadelfia, Stamperia Delle Province Unite, 1807

4 volumes, with a portrait on woodcut on the first page of the first volume. Very good copy.

SERAFINO DUBOIS
Le Principali Aperture Del Giuoco Di Scacchi, Roma, Tipografia Dei Fratelli Monaldi, 1808

4°


Contemporary half calf. Goody copy.

DOMENICO LORENZO PONZIANI
Il Giuoco Incomparabile Degli Scacchi, Venezia, Nella Stamperia Negri, 1812

4°


Contemporary half calf. Good copy except for some wormholes

MADAME DE STAEL
De L'Allemagne, Paris, Chez H. Nicolle, 1814



Covers and spine damaged with lacks of calf. Inside very good copy

Francesco Carlo D’Amico Duca d’Ossada (1740-1825

Osservazioni pratiche intorno la pesca, corso e cammino de’ tonni In opposizione a quanto scrisse su tal soggetto l’avvocato Dr. Don Francesco Paola Avolio Siracusano ... In Messina, Presso la Società Tipografica, 1816.


§ 8vo (200 x 140), [14], IX, [3], 164 pp., signature A-M1-8; engraved frontispiece of Ferdinand IV, large folding engraved plate. Contemporary wrappers. Free leaf and first two leaves stain on right low corner, not affecting the text. Fine copy, crisp and wide-margined.

First edition of this work on tuna fisheries in Sicily; the author, Francesco Carlo d'Amico was count of Guido and duke of Calvello (previously Ossada), owned the tuna fisheries of San Giorgio. Written in response to a work published by Avolio, D ’Amico opposes and corrects many of Avolio's statements. Divided in three parts, the present works describes first about the tuna fish and explains different legal and fiscal aspects of the industry; the second part is about the distances among fisheries and the legal restictions on fishing on this basis; the third one is detailed description of the tuna fisheries in Sicily, their history, ownership, seasonal activity, harvest and so on.
Ref: Massimo Tricamo and Giovanni Lo Presti I duchi d'Ossada e le Tonnare in: https://duchidossada.blogspot.com/; Giampiero Fumi Fonti per la storia dell'agricoltura italiana (1800-1849): saggio bibliografico Vita e Pensiero, Milano, 2003, n. 957; Vincenzo Consolo Reading & Writing the Mediterranean : Essays, University of Toronto Press, 2007, pag. 166-167.

LORENZO NESI
Storia Fisica Della Terra, Milano, Per Ferdinando Baret, 1816

8°, half calf

ANTONIO SCARPA (1752-1832)

Memoria sulla legatura delle principali arterie degli arti con una appendice all’opera sull’aneurisma Pavia, Dalla tipografia di Pietro Bizzoni successo a Bolzani, 1817


§ Large 4to (23x33x1,5 cm); VIII, 136 pp., signature: [no sign.]1-4, 1-171-4. Printed exlibris on paste-down From the library of Kenneth Clark Saltwood” Later half-vellum, printed tittle label on spine. Very fine copy on large, strong paper
First edition. A previous work on aneurysms (to which the present edition contains an “appendix”), was published in 1804 and stimulated the study of blood vessels, arteries in particular, from other researchers. Scarpa studied in Padua where, among his teachers,were Giovanni Battista Morgagni, founder of modern pathological anatomy, and the surgeon Girolamo Vandelli. Scarpa graduated in medicine and philosophy in 1770 and two years later was appointed professor of anatomy in Modena. In 1783 he obtained the chairs of anatomy and surgery in Pavia, where he became also director of the clinic of surgery since its foundation; he was also director of the anatomical museum, which,under his guide, gained european fame. Scarpa is best remembered for his outstanding works in the fields of anatomy and surgery.
Ref: De Renzi, V, pp. 199-204 and passim; Maria Carla Garbarino, Valentina Cani, Scarpa, Antonio In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani; Garrison Morton, 2940

Giovanni Ceccarini (1790 - 1861)


Descrizione del Carro inventato da Giovanni Ceccarini scultore romano. Estratto dall’Efemeridi letterarie di Roma Luglio 1822 Roma nella stamperia De Romanis, 1822


§ 4to, (235 x 160); 6 pp, 4 folding plates representing a cart, original green cardboard, an excellent. wide- margined copy. First edition, exceedingly rare, only three copies recorded.

The sculptor Giovanni Ceccarini, a pupil of Canova, worked in Rome, where he produced several works, some of them on projects by Valadier. He also published two works, both of them extremely rare: the present one, for which one copy only is reported in World Catalogue and a “Lettera di G. Ceccarini scultore al signor G. Vanelli di carrara relativa al granito dell'isola del Giglio”,About Ceccarini’s inventions Spadini writes : “Sembra, inoltre, che avesse inventato un mezzo per trasportare i marmi più pesanti (Hubert)”, while Bruni gives some more information: “Working for great names in architecture and sculpture evidently stimulated his entrepreneurial spirit to overcome the technical difficulties that faced those who had to work and transport large blocks of marble. In those years he set up a factory, inside which the transformation of the marble took place, near the Giuditta, in today's area of the Isola Tiberina. Here, among other things, he installed “a marble saw, made up of twelve blades” which, as the documents of the time report, allowed “great savings of human life” since until then this heavy work had been carried out by arms power. ... A profound connoisseur of the techniques and materials of his trade and a great innovator, the remarkable echo that aroused the invention and construction of a cart for transporting large blocks of marble from the Tiber to the city testifies.” (Bruni, translated).
Ref; Pasqualina Spadini Giovanni Ceccarini, DBI; G. Hubert, La sculpture dans l'Italie napoléonienne, Paris 1964, p. 414 (cited by Spadini); Emanuela Bruni Nuova Accademia Tuscolana