Gemmarum Antiquarum Delectus; Ex Præstantioribus Desumptus, Quæ In Dactyliothecis Ducis Marlburiensis Conservantur. - Choix De Pierres Antiques Gravées Du Cabinet Du Duc De Marlborough. - Tom. I. (II.) -
RA Collection: Book
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Physical Description
General Note
Contents
Responsibility Note
The two frontispieces are signed as designed by G.B. ('J.B.' in Vol. II) Cipriani and engraved by F. Bartolozzi. All plates in Volume I and the last plate in Volume II are signed as drawn by G.B. Cipriani and engraved by F. Bartolozzi; all others in Volume II are unsigned.
The printer is named on the versos of the title pages: 'Excudebat Gulielmus Baxter, Oxon.'
References
D. Scarisbrick, 'English collectors of engraved gems', in M. Henig, Classical gems ancient and modern intaglios and cameos in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (1994), p.xiii-xxiii.
Summary Note
The text is in Latin and French throughout.
The work describes one hundred engraved gems in the collection of the Duke of Marlborough. This celebrated collection had been assembled mainly by the fourth Duke, who bought the Arundel, Bessborough and Zanetti collections.
Each plate shows one gem, enlarged, with a scale-bar beneath. The gems show figures from Greek mythology or portraits of celebrated Greeks and Romans. Two of the most famous are that showing the marriage of Cupid and Psyche (which the Duke allowed to be reproduced by Wedgwood) (Vol. I., pl. 50) and that showing the head of Antinous. The frontispiece of Volume I shows Caesar offering caskets of gems to Venus; that of Volume II, an allegoric figure repulsing Time.
The collection was sold by the seventh Duke in 1875.
Provenance
Binding Note
Name as Subject
Subject
Celebrities, Greek - Celebrities, Roman - Portraits - History
Gems, Greek - Gems, Roman - History
Collections - Great Britain - 19th century
Catalogues - Great Britain - 19th century
Pictorial works - Great Britain - 19th century
Contributors
Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA, draughtsman
Francesco Bartolozzi RA, engraver
William Baxter, printer
Jacob Bryant
William Cole
Paul Henry Maty, translator
Louis Dutens, translator
Images from this book
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Offerings to Venus (frontispiece to volume one of Gemmarum Antiquarum), 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Julius Caesar crowned with laurel wreath, 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Marcus Junius Brutus with caduceus and turtle, 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Agrippina the Elder wearing laurel wreath, 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Antinous , 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Laocoön, 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Jupiter and Juno, 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Hercules drinking, 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Faun sat on a tiger skin, 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Diomedes and Ulysses , 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Virtue pushing back Time (frontispiece to volume two of Gemmarum Antiquarum), 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Socrates and Plato, 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Alexander the Great , 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Sappho , 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Isis, 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Didius Julianus and Manlia Scantilla Augusta, 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Head of Sirius, 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Temple of Mercury, 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Ganymede and the Eagle, 1785
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Giovanni Battista Cipriani RA
Chariot , 1785
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