Boccaccio,G.
Il Decamerone. 5 vols. "Londra" (i.e. Paris), n.d. 1757. With engraved portrait frontispiece, 5 copper titles, 110 copper plates after Boucher (6), Cochin (5), Eisen (11) and Gravelot (88) as well as over 200 engraved vignettes. Smoothed marbled calf (joints slightly brittle, a few losses and missing parts, capitals with missing parts, bumped and rubbed) with 2 gilt-stamped labels, richly re-gilt, triple cover fillets, gilt on standing and inner edges and gilt edges on three sides. Brunet I, 1003, Sander 182, Cohen-Ricci 158ff, Fürstenberg 81, 87, 91, 134, 146, 78 - First edition with these illustrations (in the second printing, verso without the paraphe). One of the most beautiful Boccaccio editions of the Rococo period: "Un des livres illustres des plus reussis de tout le XVIIIe siecle" ("Cohen-Ricci"). "Gravelot contributed a number of his most beautiful sheets to Boccaccio. One can see here how much he liked playful scenes... The light spirit of the early Renaissance has been married here with the grace of the 'dixhuitieme' so completely that an almost flawless unity has been created" (Fürstenberg). - Only slightly browned and in places heavily foxed, printed on strong Dutch laid paper, very wide margins.
