FIRST DICTIONARY OF ART TERMINOLOGY
BALDINUCCI, Filippo. Vocabolario Toscano dell' arte del disegno ... Florence, Santi Franchi, 1681.
4to, pp. xix, [1], 188, printed in double columns; occasionally some light browning but a fine, large copy bound in contemporary English dark calf, sides with single blind fillet border and unusual blindstamped floral border next to spine, upper hinge at top cracking. From the collection of Martin Bowes with his bold Ms ink ownership inscription and engraved armorial bookplate.
First edition of 'the first attempt at a dictionary of artistic parlance, in the spirit of the purists of the Crusca, but valuable as having sprung from this terrain of ancient artistic tradition ... [it] ... is [Baldinucci's] best work in the aesthetic-technical field and has a definitive importance for its time' (Schlosser-Magnino, pp. 468, 6l5).The dictionary not only encompasses terminology of the fine arts (painting, sculpture and architecture) but also lists the technical language of the 'minor arts', such as goldsmith and precious metal work including jewellery, precious and semi-precious stones, colour pigments and their recipes, etc.
Cicognara 2l46 ('libro prezioso'); Schlosser-Magnino pp. 468, 6l5, 624; Gamba 95.
£1500
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