BERTOLI, GIANDOMENICO.

Le Antichita' d'Aquileja profane e sacre, per la maggior parte finora inedite, raccolte, disegnate, ed illustrate.

Venezia (Venice), Giambatista Albrizzi, 1739.

Folio. Beautiful cont. Cambridge-style full-calf bdg. w. six raised bands on back, back richly gilt, boards blindtooled and w. gilt line-borders, all edges blind-tooled. Corners slightly bumped and edges w. a bit of wear, but very well-preserved and tight bdg. Internally very nice and clean w. a small repaired tear to t-p. and f. 3, minor brownspotting to t-p. and upper margin of a few other leaves. Engr. frontispiece by Zucchi after Bertoli, t-p. in red and black w. engr. title-vignette, engr. text-vignettes and 665 text-illustrations, most of them engr., some full-page. Frontisp., (14), 444, 36 (Indexes) pp.

First edition of this excellent and richly illustrated work on Italian antiques, inscriptions etc. from the city of Aquileja in Northern Italy. Originally by the author intended to be volume one of three, but the other two volumes never appeared.

The city of Aquileja was founded as a Roman colony in 181 BC. Because of it being located where the trade routes from Italy, the East, and the countries beneath the Alps met, Aquileja became of great military and commercial importance. In the 4th century it was usually the seat of the reigning emperors.

Bertoli (1676 - 1759), also called l'abbé Jean-Dominique, was an Italian literary and antiques-collector. This is his only work. Graesse 1:351.

Order-nr.: 27757