321 - ANTOLINI, Giovanni Antonio.

ANTOLINI, Giovanni Antonio. Opera d'Architettura, or a design for the forum to be built in Milan by Professor and Architect Giovanni Antolini, in 24 copper plates. Milan, published by the Bettalli Brothers, (ca. 1801–1810). Large folio; title page with engraved vignette and 24 flat plates, folded and mounted on tabs; margins intact. 19th-century fawn half-morocco with corners, accented with cold-stamped fillets on the covers, spine with raised ribs accented by a cold-stamped fillet, blind-stamped panels with a repeated gilt VM monogram, gilt title, gilt head (slight scuffing on the binding, scattered foxing, mainly on the sides, a faint corner water stain on 8 of the aquatint plates). Bibliography: Berlin Cat., 2649. Cicognara, 3937, only for the Bodoni edition. Graesse, I, 151, which mentions only a Bettalli edition from 1814 with “line engravings” Description: A masterpiece of utopian neoclassical architecture, among the rarest of its kind. Magnificent original prints, purchased by the Bettalli brothers of Milan for their reprint edition. Complete set, featuring 14 large double-page aquatint views, printed in shades of sepia ink with deep contrasts, and 10 large ground plans and architectural drawings to scale, engraved in black on double pages. Accompanied by a tondo vignette, engraved on the title page, titled *Foro Bonaparte*. The absence of engraved numbering and the color of the print seem to indicate that it comes from the very first printing run, produced by subscription between 1801 and 1806. A copy belonging to Victor Masséna (1836–1910), Duke of Rivoli and Prince of Essling, grandson of the Marshal of the Empire, bearing his gold monogram repeated in the panels. The volume comes from his library of illustrated books and atlases, a collection that was dispersed in the early 20th century. No copies of this edition are listed in the CCFr. Only a few copies are listed in WorldCat (North America, Spain, Italy, and Germany). Spectacular views of a monumental project by the architect and urban planner Giovanni Antolini (1753–1841), which was never realized and remained in the stage of plans and engravings. This Foro Bonaparte in Milan was commissioned during the Napoleonic era in Italy and was abandoned following the Empire’s downfall. The design and scale of the buildings and squares evoke the visionary work of his Enlightenment contemporaries, such as Claude-Nicolas Ledoux and Boullée. Antolini produced the drawings for all but one of the plates, which was executed by Alessandro Sanquirico; these were subsequently engraved by Fernando Albertolli, Filippo Antolini, Giuseppe Cariani, and others. After an initial phase of subscription-based print runs that lasted several years, the work was “published” in 1806 by Bodoni under the title *Descrizione del Foro Bonaparte*. However, public collections appear to contain only copies of the text (16 pp.), without the plates, despite the mention of the engravings in the Bodoni catalog; it is therefore possible that Bodoni never actually completed this edition, although this information still requires further research, which is complicated by the extreme rarity of this set. "According to information from the Getty Institute, which owns copies of both editions, it is likely that the Bettalli edition represents a clearance sale of the original aquatint plates, printed in Milan between 1801 and 1804. All versions of these spectacular plates are extremely rare."