Sowerby Catalogue <h1>Volume IV : page 371

Piranesi. Varie vedute di Roma antica e moderna. fol.

1815 Catalogue, page 130, no. 10 Varie vedute di Roma antica e moderna del Piranesi, fol.

PIRANESI , Giovanni Battista.

Varie vedute di Roma antica e moderna, del Piranesi. Roma, 1748.

Folio. The above was the binder’s title to a miscellaneous selection of plates. Jefferson’s Piranesi plates were bound for him in calf, gilt, by John March on March 7, 1805, with the notation on the bill “ very difficult.” This title may have been the one lettered by March on the back. The cost of the binding was $2.50.

Kimball, page 98.

Jefferson first tried to get a set of Piranesi in 1791 to use in the buildings of Georgetown. On January 24, 1791, he wrote from Philadelphia to William Short in Amsterdam: “ . . . pray get me by some means or other a compleat set of Piranesi’s drawings of the Pantheon, & especially the correct design for it’s restoration as proposed by I forget whom, which was not executed, & of which I have heard you speak. I wish to render them useful in the public buildings now to be begun at Georgetown . . . ”

Again, in a letter to William Short dated March 16 in the same year, Jefferson wrote: “ . . . pray get me by some means or other a compleat set of Piranesi’s drawings of the Pantheon, & especially the correct design for it’s restoration as proposed by I forget whom, which was not executed, & of which I have heard you speak. I wish to render them useful in the public buildings now to be begun at Georgetown . . . ”

Jefferson seems not to have obtained a copy until 1805, when he bought one from Reibelt of Baltimore. “ Piranesi, Varie vedute di Roma, fol. $ 13.80 ” is included in an undated list of books with Reibelt’s prices written by Jefferson, and on January 10, 1805, Reibelt wrote that he had sent the Piranesi, Jefferson acknowledging its receipt in a letter dated January 23. The entry appears on the various lists of books and bills made by Jefferson at that time.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 1720-1778, Italian engraver, studied art in Rome, and spent the rest of his life making engravings of the ancient architectural monuments. The whole collection amounted to about 2000 engravings and was published in 29 volumes in Paris, 1835-1837. Piranesi was aided by his son, Francesco, who later was in correspondence with Jefferson.

[4197]

Edifices anciennes de Rome par Desgodetz. fol. Paris. 1779.

1815 Catalogue, page 129, no. 19, as above.

DESGODETS, Antoine Babuty.

Les Édifices Antiques de Rome, mesurés et dessinés tres-exactement sur les lieux par feu M. Desgodetz, Architecte du Roi. Nouvelle Édition. A Paris: chez Claude-Antoine Jombert, Fils aîné, De l’Imprimerie de Monsieur. m. dcc. lxxix . Avec Approbation, et Privilège du Roi. [1779.]

Royal folio. 77 leaves of text including the engraved title, by and after Desgodets, 137 numbered engraved plates, full and double-page, by De Chastillon, Le Clerc, P. and J. le Pautre, N. Guérard, Brebes, Bonnart, Tournier and Marotte, all after Desgodets, colophon on the last page of text.

Quérard II, 513.

Kimball, page 93.

Jefferson’s copy was bought from Froullé in Paris on July 20, 1791, through the agency of William Short, at the time in Amsterdam. The price was 72.

Jefferson’s letter to William Short of January 24, 1791, quoted in the preceding entry, after the request for a set of Piranesi’s drawings, continues: “ . . . to this I wish Frouillé would add Desgodetz’s antient buildings of Rome. I must on another occasion open a correspondence with him to send me the books I may want, & have their amount remitted to him once year. I mention this book now as immediately wanting & as a good opportunity may occur for sending it . . . ”