Scelta di paesi inventati ed intagliaaintingti da Pier Jacopo Palmieri e da altri Bolognesi per uso de pittori dilettanti

Oblong 4to.  180 x 250 mm., [7 ¼ x 9 ½ inches].  Engraved frontispiece of Valerio Boschi, engraved title-page with an image of the city of Bologna in the background, 2 pp. engraved dedications, 33 engraved plates of countryside villas, landscapes, and country scenes from the environs surrounding Bologna.  Bound in contemporary decorated paper wrappers, spine reinforced with old repair, edges rubbed, fore edges of paper brown with age, margins foxed.  With faults a rare survival.

A charming series of engraved and etched plates, designed in great detail and with considerable skill, which capture the feeling of the pastoral countryside around Bologna.  As stated in the title, Palmieri published this work as a type of manual for oil painters, learning how to organize their paintings and create a pleasing compositional structure.  Of the 33 plates nineteen are designed by Palmieri and an additional eleven are designed by another Bolognese artists Giuseppe Beruzzi.  Two plates are by Bernardo Minozzi and a single image is designed b Gaetano Rapini.  All are printed by Luigi Guidotti.

Little is known about the author and designer of most of the plates in this little volume.  In addition to this work, Palmieri published a series of four plates carrying the title Fuoco, Aria, Terra Acqua, also printed by Guidotti the same years as this work.  Palmieri is also known to have contributed to a work by Simoni consisting of battlefield scenes, entitled, Scelta di battaglie inventate e disegnate which also appeared in 1760.

Only edition of this rare album of prints, not listed in Cicognara or the Berlin Catalogue.  Not cited in OCLC or NUC; and only 3 copies listed in the Italian Union Catalogue (ICCU)   (1146)