• Lettere di giustificazione scritte a milord Charlemont e a’ di lui agenti di Roma dal signor Piranesi, 1757

Curatorial Notes:
  • Piranesi opened the Lettere with an autobiographical vignette. The etching features the artist’s tools arranged into a frame: dividers, brush, stylus or porte-crayon, and quill pen. The instruments hold in place an ouroboros, or serpent that devours its own tail, as a reference to eternity. Piranesi addressed his readers by inscribing their names at the printer’s center. In Princeton’s copy of the Lettere, a later owner has obscured the original recipient’s name with a small print from a numismatic book.
Date:
  • 1757
Format:
  • Book
Extent:
  • [2] leaves, xxviii p., [8] leaves of plates : ill. ; 26 cm.
Creator:
Publisher:
  • In Roma : [s.n.], MDCCLVII [1757]
Language:
  • Italian
Subject:
  • Piranesi, Giovanni Battista, 1720-1778
  • Charlemont, James Caulfeild, Earl of, 1728-1799
  • Piranesi, Giovanni Battista, 1720-1778—Antichità romane
Author:
  • Piranesi, Giovanni Battista, 1720-1778
Provenance:
  • SAX copy: Bookplates of Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow and of Sir Henry Fitz Herbert, Bart. Written on t.p.: "Ex dono autoris. J.C." On first leaf, intended for inscription, is a label with initials JC.
Contributor:
  • Charlemont, James Caulfeild, Earl of, 1728-1799
Description:
  • Engraved title page by Piranesi (second leaf). Engraved head- and tail-pieces. Includes engraved frontispiece designs for Le antichità romane.
  • This pamphlet attacks the patron of Le antichità romane, James Caulfield, 1st Earl of Charlemont, who had failed to provide promised financial support.
  • SAX copy: Quotation from Pliny in compartment at upper left of t.p.
  • SAX copy: With Piranesi's letter of retraction, dated Roma, 15 marzo 1758. [4] p. Italian and French in columns, with text beginning "Signor mio / Monsieur."
Credit line:
  • Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University Library
View in catalog:
Identifier:
  • ark:/88435/q811kr583