BIANCHI, Giuseppe - Lot 68

BIANCHI, Giuseppe Ragguaglio delle Antichità e Rarità che si conservano nella Galleria Mediceo-Imperiale di Firenze Florence, nella Stamperia Imperiale, 1759 PREMIER GUIDE DE POCHE DE LA GALERIE DES OFFICES, DESTINÉ AUX VOYAGEURS ORIGINAL EDITION In-8 (183 x 127mm). Letterpress mark on title page. Engraved headbands, initials and endpapers. The title page is marked "Parte I", the only one to appear. COLLATION: XIV pp, 236 pp, (1) f. CONTEMPORARY WAITING BINDING. Soft bis paper boards, spine muted, untrimmed. Page 117 slightly creased. Very slight soiling to boards. The Bianchi family was famous for having been curators of the Uffizi Gallery from father to son since 1580. Giuseppe Bianchi (ca. 1720-1779) was the last of the Bianchi family to hold this status, from 1754 until his death. In 1759, he published his first pocket guide to the Uffizi, a kind of counterpart to Anton Francesco Gori's Museum florentinum, then in preparation. The book is imbued with the Bianchi family's loyalty to the Medici family, a testament to more than two centuries of family devotion. The book begins with a description of the building, continues with a tour of twelve rooms and focuses on some of the Gallery's masterpieces, including: the famous Medici Venus (six pages are devoted to her), The Sleeping Hermaphrodite, The Faun and Priape. BIBLIOGRAPHY : Cicognara, II, 4202 -- C. Paul (ed.), The First Modern Museums of Art, Los Angeles, Getty Museum, 2012, pp. 82-84, 89-96