L'Augusta Ducale Basilica Dell'Evangelista San Marco Nell' Inclita Dominante Di Venezia Colle Notizie Del suo Innalzamento, sua Architettura, Musaici, Reliquie, e Preziosità che in essa si contengono; arrichite di alcune Annotazioni, e adornate di varie Tavole in Rame dissegnate da celebre Architetto ed incise da perito Artefice.
RA Collection: Book
Record number
03/2515
Imprint
In Venezia,: MDCCLXI., Presso Antonio Zatta. Con Licenza De' Superiori, E Privilegio.
Physical Description
[6], 64 p., engr. port., frontis., XI [i.e. 8] pl.: illus.; 707 mm. (Broadsheet).
General Note
Eight sheets carry eight plates. But the plates are numbered I-XI; plate IV-V being carried on one sheet, and plate VI- VII- VIII being carried on one sheet.
Contents
[Port. of Marco Foscarini, t.-p., front., dedic.] - Prefazione - [Text:] Fondazione della Basilica di S. Marco; Parti Esteriori del Tempio; Dell'Atrio; Tempio interiore; Cappelle della Madonna de ' Mascoli, e di Sant' Isidoro; Cappella del Battistero; Sagristie; Tesoro di S. Marco; Primicerj; Canonici] - Indice De' Capitoli; [printer's device] - [Plates].
Responsibility Note
The text is largely extracted from the works of F. Sansovino and F. Cornaro.
Numbered plates and frontispiece are unsigned; but it is known that Antonio Visentini drew and published them in 1726 as Iconografia della Chiesa Ducale di S. Marco, where they are printed with the signature of engraver P. Vincenzo. Zatta bought the plates from Visentini some time after 1754. The portrait of Foscarini is signed as drawn and engraved by Magnini; and Magnini's name appears under the engraved rocaille border of the title-page.
The publisher's imprint of Antonio Zatta (or 'A.Z.') appears on each of the numbered plates, the frontispiece and most head- and tail-pieces.
The publication is dedicated by Antonio Zatta to Marco Foscarini, Procurator of St Mark's (afterwards Doge of Venice, 1762-1763).
References
Royal Institute of British Architects, British Architectural Library ... Early printed books, 1 (1994), no. 152, p.87; M. Lanckoronska, Venezianische Buchgraphik des XVIII. Jahrhunderts (1950), 19; G. Morazzoni, Libro illustrato veneziano del settecento (1943), p. 214.
Summary Note
This book is one of many sets of views produced in Venice in the eighteenth century, mainly for visitors. More detailed accounts of Venetian architecture and art were written by Temanza and Zanetti.
Here Zatta reproduces plates first engraved and published in 1726 after drawings by Visentini.
Visentini's most famous etchings were those which he made of Canaletto's views in the collection of the British Consul at Venice, Joseph Smith; which were published in 1735 and in an expanded version in 1742 as Urbis Venetiarum Prospectus Celebriores.
Reproductions
A facsimile of the RIBA copy was published in 1964 (Ridgewood, NJ USA: Gregg).
Provenance
Acquired by 1802. Recorded in A Catalogue Of The Library In The Royal Academy, London (1802).
Copy Note
The Academy's copy does not have the ornamental borders that surround the text in some copies, nor the multi-colored title-page. (But the dedication page has a head-piece printed in indigo, and a decorated initial in bistre.)
Binding Note
20th-century half calf, marbled-papered boards; brown morocco spine label lettered 'Augusta Basilica Di San Marco'.
Subject
St. Mark's Cathedral (Venice) - Architecture, Italian - Churches - Cathedrals - Italy - Venice - History - Romanesque
Views - Vedute - Italy - Venice - 18th century
Pictorial works - Italy - 18th century