BOCCHI Achille Symbolicarum Quaestionum de universo genere quas serio ludebat libri quinque.
Bologna, Soc. Typ. Bononiensis, 1574 4to: woodcut device of the Society on title-page and 151 copperplate engravings. 17th century English red morocco, gilt with wide borders and large central ornament, all incorporating distinctive tools of orbed crowns, skilfully rehinged, titling-label renewed. Engraved rococo bookplate of S. White, Queen's College signed W. Henshaw. An excellent copy with dark, bright impressions of the engravings. Second edition, with Bonasone's engravings retouched by the young Agostino Carracci. Prospero Fontana's designs are often obscure in their iconography: their sources have not yet been fully identified. Two of the most striking are after a drawing, probably lost, of Jupiter and Ganymede (see the exhibition catalogue Michelangelo and His Influence #15 where Paul Joannides summarises current critical opinion on the drawing, copies and engravings) made by Michelangelo for Tommaso Cavalieri: others have been identified as being after Raphael and Giulio Romano. Their significance as reflections of quattrocento symbols and hieroglyphics has been analysed by Wind in several sections of Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance. These striking illustrations have been shown to have influenced Blake and Samuel Palmer after two centuries of neglect. See the catalogue of the recent Samuel Palmer exhibition at the British Museum.
£3750
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