Alcune Composizioni Di Diversi Autori In Lode Del Ritratto Della Sabina. Scolpito in Marmo dall'Eccellentissimo M. Giovanni Bologna, posto nella piazza del Serenissimo Gran Duca di Toscana. [Device]
RA Collection: Book
Record number
07/4293
Imprint
In Firenze: Nella Stamperia di Bartolomeo Sermartelli., MDLXXXIII.
The publication is dedicated by Michelagnolo Sermartelli to Bernardo Vecchietti.
References
Harvard College Library Department Of Printing And Graphic Arts Catalogue Of Books And Manuscripts Part II: Italian 16th Century Books Compiled by Ruth Mortimer Volume II (1974), no. 478, p.661-3.
Summary Note
The text consists of Italian verses by Bernardo Vecchietti, Vincenzio Alamanni, Bernardo Davanzati, Lorenzo Franceschi, Cosimo Gaci, cavalier Gualtieri, Piero Di Gherardo Capponi, Bernardino De Nerli, Francesco Martelli, Ottavio Rinuccini, Guiglielmo Martelli, Baccio Cecchi, Francesco Marchi, Giovanmaria Cecchi, Pierfrancesco Cambi and Lorenzo Giacomini Tebalducci, and Latin verses by Sebastianus Sanleolinus, Petrus Philippus Asirellius and Incertus Auctor.
The verses are in praise of Giambologna's three-figure statue of the Rape of a Sabine; which he made in 1581 and 1582 for the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. (Giambologna's wax models for this composition are preserved at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.) The legend of the abduction of Sabine women by the Romans in order to populate their own state is told by Livy and by Plutarch. The subject has been treated by Poussin, Rubens, David, Picasso and others.
The three woodcuts show: [1] the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence; [2, 3] two views of the statue. The booklet is further decorated with headpieces, tailpieces, decorated initials and a title-page vignette.
Provenance
The front pastedown of the volume carries the (19th-century?) bookplate of Luigi Fortunato Pieri; and is inscribed in pencil, 'S:A:H', i.e. S.A. Hart, librarian of the Royal Academy 1864-81.
Binding Note
19th-century marbled-papered boards; green morocco spine-label lettered 'Composizioni In Lode Della Sabina Firenze 1583'. Bound with one other.