[BURCI, Emilio, artist] Vedute del Giardino del Mar. Stiozzi-Ridolfi giˆ Orti Oricellari. Florence, 1832 1832
Oblong folio (535 x 400 mm), comprising 20 lithographed plates, all but one (plan of the garden) in fine contemporary hand-colouring; some occasional foxing, a very good copy, uncut and unbound, in a cloth portfolio with ties. £5500
First edition of this rare series of views of the historic Orti Oricellari, the grand Florentine gardens created by Bernardo Rucellai (1449-1514) for his Palazzo Rucellai (designed by Alberti). The gardens were a famous gathering place for humanists, philosophers and poets. 'The Orti Oricellari were a famous Renaissance 'selva'. In these gardens Bernardo Rucellai (in Latin, 'Oricellari'), who had married Nannina de' Medici in 1460 (sister of Lorenzo il Magnifico), collected the sculptures stolen after the exile of the Medici in 1494, and refounded the Platonic Academy of Careggi. The villa was sold to Bianca Cappello in 1573, and was transformed in the Romantic era by Cambrai Digny. The colossal 17C statue of Polyphemus (restored in 1991) is by Antonio Novelli... ' (Alta Macadam, Florence p 245-6). The gardens were also the place where the conspiracy of 1522 against Cardinal Giuliano de Medici was hatched.
The title has a coloured illustration of the 'Ingresso principale del Giardino'. Three plates illustrate the Grotto of Polyphemus, of which two depict the interior. The statue is shown on two further plates. There is a Temple of Flora, a Pantheon, a Fortress and Belvedere, walkways with classical sculpture, fountains, a Temple of Venus, two views of the lake, flower beds, etc.
The plates were drawn by Emilio Burci, and lithographed by Salucci.
OCLC records four locations, Massachusetts Horticultural Society Library, New York Botanic Garden Library, Princeton, and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
£5500
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