Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian at Spalatro in Dalmatia by Adam, Robert - 1764

London: Printed for the author, 1764. First edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Folio: 15 x 21. Contemporary calf boards with light scuffing and bumping. Beautiful respine to style preserving the original title label. Sixty-one engraved plates and maps including eight double-page plates and six folding. Very little foxing with wide uncut margins. Owners bookplate (Thomas Cubitt) on the inside cover; otherwise unmarked. A Very Good copy of this important work. Included in the list of Subscribers to this work are David Garrick (actor, playwright), David Hume (philosopher), Joshua Reynolds (painter), Horace Walpole (author, politician), James Adam (Roberts brother) and William Adam (Roberts cousin, historian) who wrote the introduction to this work. Robert Adam (1728-1792) was educated at the University of Edinburgh and later studied with and became friends with Piranesi in Italy. Their architectural ideas developed along similar clean, classical lines. Adam spent five weeks in Spalatro in July and August of 1757, accompanied by Clerisseau and two other draftsmen, making the drawings that are the basis of the present volume. Adam's original intention had been to go to Greece to produce a work to rival that of Stuart and Revett, but his decision to go to Spalatro (located in present-day Croatia where the town is now known as Split) instead, and to record the late Roman imperial palace there, offered particular opportunities for grand engravings in the manner of Piranesi. Publication of the book took some years, for production of the engravings was shared between a team of Italian engravers (Bartolozzi, Cunego, Santini, Zocchi) supervised in Venice by his brother James, and English engravers who produced the simpler elevations and ground plans. The result was a volume of very considerable distinction which advertised Adam's taste and professional abilities, as well as showing that Roman architecture could be as impressive as the best Greek buildings portrayed by Stuart and Revett. Robert and James Adam have long been credited with giving birth to the eighteenth century neo classical movement that changed the face of architecture in Britain. Detailed digital images available upon request.