Ragionamenti del Signor Cavaliere Giorgio Vasari Pittore e Architetto Aretino . . . Seconda Edizione. -

Arezzo: Michele Bellotti, 1762. Quarto. Contemporary limp paper, manuscript title to spine. Contemporary or near-contemporary library ticket to the front pastedown. Half title, engraved portrait frontispiece, title printed in red and black with allegorical engraving, engraved historiated initials and head and tail-pieces. Head of spine repaired, small area of worming to the lower cover, 19th-century library ink stamp partially washed from the lower corner of the frontispiece, occasional light spotting, but overall contents fresh and largely unopened. Second edition, originally published posthumously in 1588 and reprinted in 1619 under the title Treatise on Painting. Though himself a painter and architect, Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) is now best known as the founder of art history. He wrote the first, and certainly the most influential, collection of artists' biographies, Le Vite de' Piu Eccellenti Pittori, Scultori, E Architettori, and was responsible for promoting the modern concept of the Renaissance. He was so influential that almost every art historian in the century after Vasari wrote at least partially in response to his ideas. The present volume is about Vasari's own work, in particular the allegorical meanings of his frescoes in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, which were commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici, as well as other aspects of the palazzo's decorative scheme and contents, including ancient artefacts. The text is written as a dialogue between the author and the young Francesco de' Medici, and it elucidates much of Vasari's artistic and critical philosophy. This is a particularly nice copy, the contents fresh and largely unopened. Text in Italian.