ILLUSTRATED - NUNS. La perfezione religiosa. Canti... Lot 161

[ILLUSTRATED - NUNS]. La perfezione religiosa. Canti IX per la solenne vestizione nel monistero di S. Benedetto in Padua of the noble ladies countesses Orsola and Cecilia sisters Santonini. Padua: Conzatti, 1763. A scarce collection of plates made for the monastic dressing of the Santonini sisters and illustrated by important painters of the period: Francesco Zuccarelli, Natale Briganzi, Pietro Antonio Novelli, Francesco Zanoni, Gaspare Dizioni, and Antonio Vicentini, engraved by Giulano Zuliani, Antonio Baratti and Carlo Calcinato. Folio, (425 x 275 mm). Illustrated frontispiece, engraved title-page, full-page portrait of the dedicatee Elena de' Lazara Santonini, double full-page engraved portrait of the Santonini sisters, 9 full-page plates, initials, head; and tailpieces, all of which engraved (sporadic foxing, otherwise a fine copy; as in all copies sold there is no portrait of Ferdinand of Bourbon, mentioned as missing in some records but which does not appear in the inventories consulted and in OPAC SBN) Contemporary full vellum binding, title-piece to spine, edges stained yellow. (1)