Beschreibung:

LAMBERTI, Alvise. Osservazioni sopra alcuni lezioni della Iliade di Omero . Milan: della Stamperia Reale, 1813. 4° (262 x 188mm), THE DEDICATION COPY TO EUGÈNE DE BEAUHARNAIS AS VICEROY OF ITALY ON FINE THICK LARGE PAPER, BOUND BY LODIGIANI OF MILAN with his ticket, red straight-grained morocco gilt, sides with a broad border of trellis roll and a dentelle, large Beauharnais imperial arms in centre, spine in six compartments, the second and fifth lettered, the others profusely gilt with leafy tools on pointillé ground, inner scallop border, doublures and endleaves of green glazed paper, the former with a border of gilt roses, edges gilt, in buckram case. Provenance : Leuchtenberg (Sale III, Milan 1935, lot 111, plate 16). A fine example of the art of Lodigiani, the foremost Italian binder of the Empire, for his most illustrious client. His signed bindings seem only to cover books printed between 1810 and 1815, and he was obviously influenced by contemporary Parisian work, particularly by Bozerian. He is said to have bound some volumes for Napoleon, but this may be a misreading of the Beauharnais arms, often incorrectly described as those of Napoleon as King of Italy (cf. Ramsden, French Bookbinders 1789-1848 , p.131). Lamberti's commentaries on some difficult phrases of the Iliad, dedicated to Beauharnais, were meant to supplement Bodoni's edition of Homer, which Beauharnais had supported financially.