Piccoli bronzi del Real Museo Borbonico, distinti per categorie in dieci tavole

Napoli (Naples), Italy: Stamp. di S. Piscopo, 1854. Hardbound. VG, one or two plates tightly trimmed. Previous owner's bookplate inside original cover. Plates are fresh and clean slight soiling here and there on extremities, barcode on last fep (this fep not related to original bound wraps). Green library buckram with original wraps bound in. Cover (brownish printed thick stock), Dedication page, full-page color lithograph of excavators recovering artifacts, plate 1, descriptive text to plates 1+2, plates 2+3, descriptive text for plates 3+4, plates 4+5, descriptive text for plates 5+6, plates 6+7, descriptive text for plates 7+8, plates 8+9, descriptive text for plates 9+10, plate 10 which is then followed by three additional unnumbered plates. The first two of these plates illustrate (10, 8) statuary and the third plate illustrates 31 pieces of jewellery and personal adornment items. This creates a total of 14 color lithographed plates. Carlo Ceci was a curator in the Real Museo Borbonico in Naples, now known as the Museo Archeologico Nazionale. In 1854, he published his Piccoli bronzi del Real Museo Borbonico, distinti per categorie in dieci tavole. As the title indicates, this book focuses on small bronze objects from Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae. Several of the artifacts illustrated in Ceci's book had been found as early as the eighteenth century, but were still unpublished. Although the Kings of Naples, Charles VII and his son, Ferdinand IV, sponsored the publication of Le antichità di Ercolano (1755-1792), those volumes were primarily concerned with works of art that were considered ancient masterpieces. Furthermore, in Le antichità di Ercolano, objects were categorized according to medium (see, for instance, the pages from volume 1 of the Le Antichità di Ercolano, Le pitture di Ercolano, discussed in "Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 18th Century"). In his own work, Ceci, to some extent, continues this antiquarian tradition: he offers little information regarding the objects' find spots, and limits himself to one medium--bronze. At the same time, he creates a sense of context for these pieces by grouping them according to their function. Ceci's book also reflects a growing interest in all aspects of daily life in the ancient world on the part of scholars and lay viewers alike. (from Google "The Authority of Ruins") The text descriptions of the items illustrated on the plates are provided in Italian and French. All copies located on Worldcat indicate either 10 or 13 plates, thus this copy appears unique.