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GIARRÉ, GÆTANO : Alfabeto di Lettere Iniziali Adorno di Animali e Proseguito da Vaga Serie di Caratteri

Giacomo Moro, Firenze, 1797

Folio, contemporary brown pastepaper-covered wrappers a little worn at the very edges. Preserved in a quarter-morocco clamshell case.First edition (with brilliant impressions) of one of the most imaginative works of calligraphy and decoration that, according to Morison, revived Italian calligraphy at the close of the eighteenth century:"...the disappearance of calligraphy in Italy at the end of the seventeenth century was not so final as had at first seemed the case. The market for writing books appeared to go underground for a hundred years, only emerging at the end of the eighteenth century, when the Florentine master, Gætano Giarré began to produce some entirely and refreshingly novel books, in neo-classical style."Each of the 25 copper-engraved leaves including the title is beautifully decorated with floral garlands, arabesques, birds, animals, vases, trophies and masks. These decorations surround the various calligraphic examples which follow the initial letters that begin a saying or verse. There are examples of alphabets other than roman, including Greek and Hebrew. But it is the decoration--especially the birds and animals--that makes this book especially handsome and desirable. This large, bright example surely must have been pulled near the beginning of the print run for it clearly preserves the lightly engraved author's signature at the bottom of the plates.See: Morison, S. Early Italian Writing Books: Renaissance to Baroque.

"...beautifully decorated with floral garlands, arabesques, birds, animals, vases, trophies and masks."- MORISON

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