ZOMPINI. Arti che vanno per via nella città di... Lot 89

ZOMPINI. Arti che vanno per via nella città di Venezia. Imperial Folio, mm. 530 x 358; binding in orange boards with blind tooling floral motives. Fustemberg specimen, bookplate pasted inside cover; leaves 4, Frontispiece, title page; Index of plates, printed Memoria, 60 cooper plates, numbered with caption. Each plate with contemporary Venetian watermark: 3 half moons with written IMPERIAL, krown with letters AV, device with star at center. A total of 62 plates engraved on copper. Some defects on binding, internally fine specimen, uncut, wide margins. Wonderful eighteenth-century edition of the Zompini. The work represents animated scenes with characters depicting the different popular activities that took place in the 18th century in the streets of Venice: street vendors, artisans, games. Under each plate, a tercet in Venetian dialect and rhyming jokingly describes the theme represented in the engraving.Pallucchini: "documentation of popular motifs with a freshness of cut and impressions caught from life, rendered in etching with pleasing ease." It is estimated that between 100 and 200 copies of this edition were printed. Zompini invented, designed and engraved the branches representing the "Arts that go by way" under the direction of Anton Maria Zanetti."