PELLI BENCIVENNI, Giuseppe. - Lot 97

PELLI BENCIVENNI, Giuseppe. Saggio istorico della Real Galleria di Firenze Florence, G. Cambiagi, 1779 MONOGRAPHY OF THE OFFICE GALLERY BY ONE OF THE MOST LEARNED FLORENTINOS OF THE TIME ORIGINAL EDITION 2 volumes in-8 (191 x 133mm) COLLATION: XIV pp., 460 pp. and (2)-310 pp. ILLUSTRATION: a folded plan of the Gallery drawn by Benvenuti and engraved by Giovanni Canocchi, in the first volume. CONTEMPORARY PAPER BINDING. Soft yellow boards with printed ornaments on boards, untrimmed, full margins. PROVENANCE: Giannalisa Feltrinelli (bookplate; New York, VI, June 2, 1998) Light wetness on pages 13 to 16 of the second volume, small tear (3cm) not missing on the plan. Spines formerly restored with period paper. Giuseppe Pelli Bencivenni (1729-1809) was an eclectic Florentine scholar and essayist who held several positions in the Grand Ducal administration, the most prestigious of which was director of the Uffizi Gallery from 1775 to 1793. He left numerous writings on art and culture, as well as an astonishing popular chronicle entitled Ephemerides, in eighty volumes, about Florentine society in the second half of the 18th century. He is also known for having written a biography of Dante, Memorie per servire alla vita di Dante Alighieri ed alla storia della sua famiglia. Bencivenni was an early and convinced supporter of the reform policies implemented between 1765 and 1790 under the Grand Duchy of Leopold II of Habsburg. The present monograph is naturally dedicated to him. It includes a history of the art collections, a description and classification of the works, and a catalog of medals, coins and gems. Unlike Giuseppe Bianchi's guide, published twenty years earlier, Bencivenni's work is more precise and exhaustive: each room, numbered on the engraved plan, is meticulously examined. The second volume is entirely devoted to scholarly descriptions of the works. The publication of this historio-artistic essay made its author one of the most important players in the modern organization of the Gallery. BIBLIOGRAPHY : L. Cicognara II, 4217: "buona descrizione storica della Galleria".