VALENTINI, Francesco Cosma Damiano (1789-1862) - photo 1
VALENTINI, Francesco Cosma Damiano (1789-1862) - photo 2
VALENTINI, Francesco Cosma Damiano (1789-1862) - photo 3
VALENTINI, Francesco Cosma Damiano (1789-1862) - photo 4

VALENTINI, Francesco Cosma Damiano (1789-1862)

Starting price
£ 4 000
Auction dateClassic
13.07.2023 10:00UTC +01:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
United Kingdom, London
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ID 992895
Lot 243 | VALENTINI, Francesco Cosma Damiano (1789-1862)
VALENTINI, Francesco Cosma Damiano (1789-1862)

Trattato su la Commedia dell’Arte, ossia improvvisa. Maschere Italiane, ed alcune scene del Carnevale di Roma. – Abhandlung über die Comödie aus dem Stegreif und die italienischen Masken: nebst einigen Scenen des Römischen Carnevals. Berlin: (A.W. Schade for) Ludwig Wilhelm Wittich, [February] 1826.

A fine copy of this delightfully illustrated treatise on masquerade and Commedia dell’Arte finely coloured – the publisher’s copy in original boards. At the behest of friends, Valentini, a professor of Italian language and literature in Berlin, was asked to give a lecture on the theatre and carnival masks of his native Rome. The lecture was then published by the Berlin art dealer and publisher Wittich who had it illustrated with charming hand-coloured etchings after drawings by the Berlin artist Johann Heinrich Stürmer. The book was available either in German or Italian or, as here, with both texts. Each figure is first individually detailed on a plate before bringing them together in group scenes. The first part is dedicated to characters of the Commedia dell'Arte with 'Arlechino', 'Pantalone', 'Dottore Ballanzoni’, 'Brighella', 'Tartaglia' and 'Smereldina'. These are then followed by characters in the pageant of Rome, such as ‘Quacquero', 'Bajaccio', 'Scopette', 'Villano' and 'Pulcinella'. The last four plates then illustrate wider scenes from the Carnival of Rome. Goethe pays a tribute to this work in a letter to Marianne von Willemer, dated 19 April 1830, stating that he had so much enjoyed reading the lecture, and looking at the plates that he had to have his copy of the work rebound to rescue it. According to a manuscript entry dated 1936, this copy belonged to Ludwig Wilhelm Wittich (1773-1832), the publisher, and comes from the estate of his great-granddaughter the Berlin art historian Frieda Schottmüller. A fine copy, beautifully preserved. Bobins IV, 1265.



Quarto (282 x 225mm). Text in German and Italian, with 20 plates after Johann Heinrich Stürmer etched by Friedrich Jügel, Friedrich Wilhelm Schwechten and Carl Friedrich Thiele, all finely coloured by a contemporary hand. Plain publisher’s boards, two printed labels on spine in Italian and German, endpapers, in embossed lilac silk, gilt edges (extremities fractionally rubbed); contained in a later black embossed cloth wrapper with title gilt on upper cover. Provenance: Ludwig Wilhelm Wittich (1773-1832; manuscript note on flyleaf).





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Category:Printed book
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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13.07.2023
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