The life of benvenuto cellini: a florentine artist...
London.
Printed for T. Davies, 1771.
First edition in English.
8vo.
In two volumes. x, 512; [2], 403pp, [41]. With an engraved portrait frontispiece to Vol. I. Contemporary calf, later rebacked. Heavily rubbed and marked. Later armorial bookplate of Calwich Library to FEP of Vol. I, later inked ownership inscriptions to FFEPs, scattered spotting.
The first edition in English, translated by Irish writer and traveller Thomas Nugent (c. 1700-1772), of the vivid and energetic, occasionally verging on racy, autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (1500-1571), Florentine mannerist artist, designer, and goldsmith. Composed 1558-63, disagreements with the reigning Duke of Florence, Cosimo I di Medici, prevented publication in Cellini's lifetime, leaving one of the finest literary works of the Italian Renaissance to limited circulation in manuscript copies until the anatomist Antonio Cocci (1695-1758) prepared the first printed edition in 1728.
ESTC T145593.
£ 375.00
Antiquates Ref: 28372