VASARI (Giorgio).

Le Vite de' più Eccelenti Pittori, Scultori et Architetti. Bologna, Héritiers Evangelista Dozza, 1647. 3 volumes in-4, stiff vellum, gilt title on the spine, blue edges (Binding of the time). Second illustrated edition of the famous founding text of the history of art by Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), originally published in Florence in 1550. The first illustrated edition dates from 1568. A copper-engraved frontispiece by Cornelis Bloemaert after Giovanni Angelo Canini and about 150 woodcut portraits of artists in the text in ornamented cartouches. A modest copy in contemporary vellum. It bears at the top of each volume a small rating label and the armorial bookplate of the Earl Ferrers Library, engraved by Warwick with the motto Honor Virtutis Premium. Volume II, p. 89, old handwritten note in the lower margin. Leaves reversed in quire Dd of volume I, the first six leaves of volume II a little dislocated. Marginal staining of some leaves and browning of some quires. Small restoration at the bottom of the dedication leaf in volume I. Rubbing to the binding, spine tarnished.