Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architetti (...). Edizione arricchita di note oltre quelle dell' edizione illustrata di Roma.

7 vol., 8vo (edges frayed, some browning).

Quarter sheep (corners bumped and rubbed, sides rubbed), decorative paper on covers, gilt titled flat spines (rubbed, some sm. def., joints rubbed). Good set.

An edition (first publ. 1550) of this famous work of the Italian painter, writer and architect G. Vasari (1511-1574) containing his many famous biographies of Italian artists. Started in Livorno (vol. I) and continued in Florence (vol. II-VII), with a preface by the Florentine painter Tommaso Gentili and dedication in vol. I signed by the publisher Marco Coltellini. Engr. ills: title vign. in each vol., frontisp. portr. of the author and portr. of the dedicatee in vol. I, 154 full-page portraits of painters, num. tail pieces. Vasari is considered to be the first art historian and initiator of the encyclopedic genre of artistic biographies. Title pages in red & black. Ref. Franklin II:2037. - Brunet V:1096. - Graesse VII:264. - Bn-Opale plus. - This ed. not in Cicognara.