Lot 139: SAINT-NON, Jean Claude Richard, l'abbé de (1727-1791).Voyage pittoresque ou description des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile. Paris: de l'Imprimerie de Clousier, 1781-1786.

SAINT-NON, Jean Claude Richard, l'abbé de (1727-1791). Voyage pittoresque ou description des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile. Paris: de l'Imprimerie de Clousier, 1781-1786. 4 volumes bound in 5, 2° (500 x 370mm). Half-titles. 5 titles with engraved vignettes by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, Pierre-Philippe Choffard and Varin, after Jean-Honoré Fragonard and Duplessi-Berteaux, letterpress sectional titles, engraved dedication by and after Saint-Non, 376 engraved plates, maps and plans, one aquatinted, 4 of the maps double-page and another 4 folding, 5 of the maps with partial hand-colouring, one near full-page engraved illustration in the text, by Claude-Augustin Duflos, Le Roy, Prévost, Saint-Non, et al. after Fragonard, Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houel, Hubert Robert, Saint-Non, et al., 116 engraved illustrations and head- and tailpieces, of which 26 hand-coloured. (Without the 14 plates of medallions sometimes found at the end of vol. IV which are repeats of the culs-de-lampe found at the end of the 14 chapters in vol. IV, occasional light offsetting, spotting and browning, short tear to 'Carte des environs de la ville et du golfe Naples' but without loss.) Contemporary green morocco, covers with gilt roll-tooled border, gilt spines with raised bands, red morocco gilt lettering-pieces, red sprinkled edges, (extremities very lightly rubbed). 'THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST AMBITIOUS AND SUCCESSFUL OF TRAVEL BOOKS' (Gordon N. Ray), AND A MASTERPIECE OF FRENCH 18TH-CENTURY PUBLISHING. First edition, first issue, illustrated with 284 engraved plates by Pâris, Fragonard, Cochin, Hubert Robert and Vivant-Denon. Plates 84-88 in vol. III are numbered 24, 11, 12, 24bis and 13 respectively; it is complete with the unnumbered plate of priapic bronzes in volume II (according to Blackmer, this was suppressed by the King of Naples). This survey of the topography and archaeology of southern Italy was mainly written by Vivant-Denon, with the introduction by Chamfort and the scientific chapters by Dolomieu, Faujas de Saint-Fond, Romé de L'Isle and d'Ennery. It includes one of the first descriptions of the ruins of Herculaneum, Pompeii and Paestum. A fine copy in contemporary green morocco gilt. Berlin Kat. 1904; Blackmer 1473; Brunet V, 55-56; Cicognara 2708; Cohen-De Ricci 928-930; Reynaud 482-484; Soultrait 18th century 164.

18th century