Passeri, Giovanni Battista Lot n° 423

Lucernae Fictiles Musei Passerii 2 parts in 1 vol. in-folio (ca. 35 x 24 cm), (I) title-page with blank verso, (14), XXVIII, 92pp., CV full-page engravings with blank versos; (II) title-page Volumen Secundum with blank verso, (8), XII, 73+1pp., CIIII full-page engravings with blank versos. First title in red and black; second title only in black, both with wood-engraved title-vignette by Io. Bapt. Passerius & V(incenzo) F(ranceschini); engraved vignettes to all titles. The plates and head- and tail-pieces are engraved after Giuseppe Menabuoni, mainly by Vincenzo Franceschini. Without Volume 3. Upperside of the beginning of Volume I is somewhat waterstaining (first 60 pages; especially the title-page); also the downer side of the last 30 pages; bound in half cloth, covers a bit scratched; otherwise a fresh copy inside with large margins First edition of this celebrated illustrated account of Passeri's collection of oil-lamps. The collection was famous in its days as the best of its kind, but scholars have subsequently proved Passeri to have been the most gullible of collectors and that his collection consisted almost entirely of fakes. The work is thus a rather remarkable testimony to the unfortunate fervour of an eighteenth-century collector. Ref. Brunet, IV, 418 ; Graesse V 156 Gavelli, Pisauri (Pesaro) In Aedibus Gavelliis, Sumtibus Academiae Pisaurensis 1739 & 1743