Beschreibung:

VASARI, Giorgio (1511-74). Le vite de' piu eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori . Florence: Giunta, 1568. 3 parts in 3 volumes, 4° (236 x 160 mm). Collation: (vol. I) A-B 4 +-5+ 4 A-Z AA-ZZ 3A-3T 4 3V 2 ; (vol. II) *-5* 4 a-z Aa-Zz 4 Aaa 2 ; (vol. III) A 2 ?-5? 4 a-e 4 Aaa-Zzz 4A-4Q 4 4R 2 4S-4Z 4 5A-5Z 4 6A-6H 4 (the second through sixth quires of vol. 3 with signing symbols strengthened in ink, and supplied in ink in the register at end). 290; 206; 345 leaves (of 346, without 6H blank). Roman type, prefaces in italic. Woodcuts: architectural and figural title-borders composed of two blocks, incorporating Medici arms at top and with inset vignette view of Florence at bottom, allegorical woodcut on verso of part 1 title, showing the awakening of the souls of dead artists, set within the inner border block with a legend in the cartouche, repeated at the end of part 3 (6H3v), medallion portrait of Vasari on B4v set within the same inner border block with Florence view in cartouche, the portrait repeated on 6D1v, 144 medallion portraits of artists, set within 6 different borders of female figures representing the arts (copied from frescoes in the Casa Vasari at Arezzo), 8 borders with portrait spaces left blank, woodcut printer's devices at ends of vols. 2 and 3, woodcut initials, typographic ornaments. This copy without the stamped last line on K4v (vol. 1) and the MS correction on TT3r (vol. 1), but with, as usual, the printed cancel label correcting the artist's name on 3R4r (vol. 3) and the MS correction to leaf 5Y3r (vol. 3) described by Mortimer; the register also with MS correction to the misdescription of quire 4R. (Title borders shaved, minor loss to vol. 1 title border from adhesion to facing leaf, some light mostly marginal foxing, occasional browning, a very few minor marginal wormholes, one touching a few letters of headlines at end of vol. 1, last leaf in vol. 1 holed with loss to 3 letters on recto, repair to blank corner of fol. 5?4 in vol. 3.) 18th-century French red morocco gilt, spines gilt, Dutch gilt endleaves with gold-stamped figures, gilt edges (joints and extremities slightly rubbed, backstrips faded). Provenance : Lord Battersea, bookplates; Pierre Hollier Larousse, bookplates. FIRST ILLUSTRATED AND FIRST COMPLETE EDITION of Vasari's monumental collection of biographies of the principal Italian artists and architects of the Renaissance -- the word was coined by him -- including the then still under-appreciated Cimabue and Giotto. This second edition, published 18 years after the first, bears a new dedication to Cosimo de' Medici, and is greatly expanded, adding biographies of 28 more recent artists, including Titian, an autobiography and a treatise on artistic techniques. The exceptionally expressive woodcut portraits were designed by Vasari and cut by various wood engravers including a "Maestro Christofano," either Cristoforo Coriolano or Cristoforo Chrieger Although some of his histories contain apocryphal anecdotes, Vasari's work, called "the first modern history of art" (PMM 85), remains the foremost authority on the artists of one of the most fertile periods in the history of western art. Adams V-296; Gamba 1725; Harvard/Mortimer Italian 515; PMM 85.