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Illustrations Based on Orsini's 1577 Familiae Romanae

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:600.00 USD Estimated At:750.00 USD
Illustrations Based on Orsini's 1577 Familiae Romanae
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[Orsini, Fulvio]. BOUND VOLUME OF METICULOUSLY RENDERED ILLUSTRATIONS DERIVED FROM ORSINI'S 1577 FAMILIAE ROMANAE QUAE REPERIUNTUR IN ANTIQUIS NUMISMATIBUS AB URBE CONDITA AD TEMPORA DIVI AUGUSTI EX BIBLIOTHECA FULVI URSINI. Folio [31 by 26 cm], original nineteenth-century red quarter morocco, gilt; spine ruled and lettered in gilt; marbled endpapers; all page edges gilt. Hand-lettered and illustrated title page; early photographic reproduction of a well-worn original title page of Orsini's masterwork; 59 leaves onto which have been mounted 59 hand-lettered and illustrated plates illustrating all 746 coins depicted by Orsini. Each plate is dated and initialed by the artist. Plates vary slightly in size, but usually measure around 14.5 by 24 cm and are on good quality mottled paper. Binding lightly rubbed, but generally fine. A remarkable, unique work, comprising the 746 coin illustrations from the 1577 edition of Orsini's highly important Familiae Romanae, carefully redrawn and reordered onto full plates of illustrations (in the original, the copperplate engravings appear throughout the text in groups one to six coins). The artist, who signed his work "AL" on both the title and on the spine, notes in his meticulous hand that "la copie des 746 médailles composant ce recueil a éte commencée le 26 fever 1877 et terminée le 15 avril 1878." Of the original Orsini work, Jonathan Kagan has written (Numismatics in the Age of Grolier, 2001) "Handsomely printed, Orsini's Familiae Romanae is full of erudite commentary and an enormous quantity of illustrations--223 engraved plates, each containing one to six Roman republican coins, showing obverse and reverse, a total of about 750 specimens. [Online description truncated: see printed or PDF catalogue for full description.]