PIRANESI (Giambattista) & BARBAULT (Jean). Opere varie di architettura, prospettiva, groteschi, antichita. [The most beautiful monuments of ancient Rome... Rome, Giovanni Bouchard [&] Bouchard and Gravier, 1750 [&] 1761. Two works in one large folio volume (51,5 x 37,5 cm) in red morocco, spine ribbed and richly decorated with niello decoration, title in gilt letters on the spine, triple gilt fillet on the sides, gilt roulettes inside and on the edges, gilt edges (period binding). Extremities of the nerves rubbed, a few very small losses to the headpieces, corners slightly dulled, a few slight scratches and old epidermises restored on the boards. I. Les plus beaux monuments de Rome ancienne ou Recueil des plus beaux morceaux de l'Antiquité romaine qui existent encore ; dessinés par Monsieur Barbault, peintre [...]. Pp. III-VIII (including the engraved title illustrated with a vignette and the dedicatory epistle with armorial header, lacking the first leaf of the false title), 90 pp. of text, and 73 superb plates, 29 of which are full-page, the others engraved on 2 subjects. The illustration also includes 8 engravings in-text. (Without the false-title, large tear and small losses restored to the spine of the title, some foxing sometimes important). Student of Restaut, Jean Barbault (1718-1762) collaborated with Piranesi before becoming his rival. "Barbault collaborates modestly it is true, with the latter in 1756 and engraves the figures of some compositions of Antichità Romane (...). In 1761, Les plus beaux monuments de la Rome ancienne (The most beautiful monuments of ancient Rome) was published by Bouchard and Gravier, the famous French publishers of the time, who wanted, by calling on Barbault, to compensate for the loss they had just made in the person of Piranesi, who had previously established himself on his own (...) The success of Ancient Rome encouraged Barbault to draw the most beautiful buildings of modern Rome, but when the work was published, Barbault had been dead for one year. Piranesi was to outlive him by sixteen years." (P. Rosenberg, Quelques nouveautés sur Barbault in Piranesi et les français, 1978, pp. 499-508). II. Opere varie di architettura, prospettiva, groteschi, antichita inventate, ed incise da Giambattista Piranesi Architetto Veneziano, raccolte da Giovanni Bouchard mercante librajo al Corso. [1] f. title engraved in black and red illustrated with a vignette by Louis-Joseph Le Lorrain, [1] f. portrait of the author by F. Polanzani, a frontispiece (Prima parte) (Robison, state IV), and 20 superb prints including 4 double-page engravings mounted on tabs. 6 proofs are before the numbers including the 4 double-page engravings (referenced Hind H15, H16, H24, H25, H26 and H27). Good condition, nice edition. Son of a Venetian stonemason, Giambattista Piranesi (1720-1778) accompanied in 1740 the ambassador of the Republic of Venice to the Holy See as "draftsman". In Rome he found an inexhaustible source of inspiration for his insatiable passion for the antique and perfected his technique as an aquafortist. In 1743, he participated in the reduction of the famous Nuova Topografia di Roma, based on Giovanni Battista Nolli's surveys, the first map of the city to be executed according to modern scientific criteria. The first personal result of the years of training and study that led Piranesi from Venice to Rome was the publication of the Prima parte at the end of 1743: the work includes twelve plates that are not simple reconstructions of ancient monuments but are pure inventions, technically unfeasible but which push the reinterpretation of the antique to the sublime and fantastic. The five additional plates added to the 1750 edition were executed between 1743 and 1745. They probably constitute the elements of the Seconda parte that the title of the first collection suggests and that will not be published separately, but will be inserted in the Opere varie that appeared from 1743 to 1757.