VITA DI MICHELAGNOLO (MICHELANGELO) BUONARROTI pittore scultore architetto e gentiluomo fiorentino. Pubblicata mentre viveva dal suo scolare Ascanio Condivi. by CONDIVI, Ascanio. MICHELANGELO BUONARROTTI.: - 1746

Florence, Gaetano Albizzini, 1746.. SECOND EDITION 1746, (first edition 1553) corrected and enlarged with various annotations and commentaries, Italian text. Folio, approximately 320 x 205 mm, 12¾ x 8 inches, engraved portrait frontispiece of the artist dated 1546, engraved vignette on title page, large engraved pictorial head- and tailpieces and initials, 3 engraved plates, 1 folding, and 1 almost full page engraving in the text, the plate at page 109 by Francesco Zuccherelli is dated 1747. pages: [2], xxx, [1]-160, bound in full antique calf, rebacked to style with raised bands and gilt lettered morocco label. Covers and corners just slightly worn, 3 pinholes and 1 tiny grazed spot to spine, 3 small bookplates to front pastedown, 1 belonging to the politician the Right Hon Charles Bathurst, Viscount Bledisloe (1867 1958), very small inscription in old ink to front endpaper dated 1781, (Leigh Sotheby probably one of the founders of Sotheby Auction House. The firm became Leigh, Sotheby, & Son in 1800), otherwise an exceptionally nice clean bright copy, binding tight and firm. Ascanio Condivi (1525?-1574) was a minor painter and an associate of Michelangelo having lived in his house in Rome as a pupil. His famous biography of the great artist, much of it based on Michelangelo's own testimony, was first published in Rome in 1553, correcting some of the erroneous impressions created by Vasari in his "Le Vite de' piu eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori" (1550). This second edition nearly 2 centuries later, edited by the Florentine historian Anton Francesco Gori corrects some of Condivi's errors and adds illustrations and extensive notes and commentaries. The Vita occupies 58 pages, followed by a brief supplement by the Florentine architect and sculptor Girolamo Ticciati tracing Michelangelo's career from 1553 to his death in 1564 (pages 59-63); observations on Condivi's Vita in French by Pierre Mariette, (16941774) a Paris collector of and dealer in old master prints, a renowned connoisseur of prints and drawings (pages 65-79); annotations on the same by the erudite Florentine historian and philologist Domenico Maria Manni (1690 1788) (pages 81-86); historical notices and annotations by Gori on the same (87-124); a compendium edited by Gori in Italian of the most notable facts taken from Giorgio Vasari's Life of Michelangelo (125-144); followed by the index. MORE IMAGES ATTACHED TO THIS LISTING, ALL ZOOMABLE. FURTHER IMAGES ON REQUEST. POSTAGE AT COST.